You may recall that in 2021 the State of Florida, in a much-publicized move, passed a law called the “Stop W.O.K.E. Act,” which banned Florida employers from mandating employee attendance to any training or instruction that...more
3/8/2024
/ Class Action ,
Discrimination ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Employee Training ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employer Mandates ,
First Amendment ,
Florida ,
Race Discrimination ,
Stop Woke Act ,
Title VII ,
Unconstitutional Condition
Is the “Stop WOKE” Act dead in Florida? Not yet, but in Honeyfund.com, Inc., et al v. Desantis, et al, one federal district court has certainly put the brakes on it. On March 29, 2022, we informed everyone about Florida HB 7,...more
Although the issue of whether someone can sue a church for employment discrimination doesn’t come up often, in Our Lady Of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru, the Supreme Court expanded the ministerial exception that...more
7/16/2020
/ Age Discrimination ,
Appeals ,
Disability Discrimination ,
Employment Discrimination ,
First Amendment ,
Freedom of Religion ,
Ministerial Exception ,
Our Lady of Guadalupe School v Morrissey-Berru ,
Religious Schools ,
Reversal ,
SCOTUS ,
Teachers
Can an organist really be considered a church minister? In a detailed and unique opinion, an Illinois federal court applied the First Amendment’s religious clauses to a church employee who claimed he had been discriminated...more
8/7/2018
/ Age Discrimination ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Employment Litigation ,
Evidence ,
First Amendment ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Ministerial Function ,
National Origin Discrimination ,
Religious Institutions ,
Retaliation
The Fifth Circuit has issued another opinion in the continuing saga of Jackson State University and its past athletic director, Dr. Vivian Fuller—this one about retaliation against a witness. To refresh everyone’s memory: A...more
Around the end of October, a photo of a government contractor employee flipping the bird to President Trump’s motorcade went viral after the woman made it her profile picture on Facebook. She was subsequently fired for a...more
Last week, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a lower court’s injunction of the enactment of Mississippi’s “Protecting Freedom of Conscience from Government Discrimination Act” (HB 1523). As written about in a blog...more
When is a “joke” so not funny that you lose your job? The Mississippi Court of Appeals gave some direction on that question, affirming the City of Meridian’s termination of a police officer for an inappropriate (arguably...more
12/9/2016
/ Code of Conduct ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Facebook ,
First Amendment ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Police ,
Political Speech ,
Public Comment ,
Public Concern ,
Public Employees ,
Racial Bias ,
Social Media
Late Thursday last night, Judge Carlton Reeves, United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi, entered a 60-page order striking down HB 1523, Mississippi’s controversial “Protecting Freedom of...more
Is it still retaliation if your boss fired you for something you didn’t actually do? In Heffernan v. City of Paterson, New Jersey, the U.S. Supreme Court said yes—your boss’s mistake does not get him off the hook for the...more
5/12/2016
/ Demotions ,
First Amendment ,
Free Speech ,
Heffernan v City of Paterson ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Mistake of Fact ,
Political Campaigns ,
Political Expression ,
Public Employees ,
Retaliation ,
SCOTUS