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Michigan Ban on School Employee Union Dues Deductions Legal

In a split opinion Thursday, a federal appeals court cleared the path toward implementing a 2012 Michigan law barring public school employers from collecting union dues from their employees. ....more

Supreme Court To Hear Case On Michigan Affirmative Action Ban

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear another major affirmative action case, Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, No. 12-682. At issue is the legality of Michigan's voter-approved ban of using racial preferences...more

CWP 2693 of 2010/ 9968 of 2009 [Hemant Goswami vs. Union of India]

Final Order of High Court in Child Labour Case

Under the J.J. Act of 2000, a person up to the age of 18 years is treated as ‘child’. Same age is prescribed under the CPCR Act, 2005 as well. However when it comes to prohibition of Child Labour Act of 1986, the definition...more

Teacher On 39-Month Reemployment List Remains A District Employee With The Right To File A Grievance

In Nelson v. Jurupa Unified School District (PERB Decision 2309E, March 8, 2013), the Public Employment Relations Board ("PERB") considered whether a school district committed an unfair labor practice by rejecting a teacher’s...more

Mexico's Education Reform May be a Catalyst for Change

Under the leadership of President Enrique Pena Nieto, Mexico has recently approved a historic constitutional amendment reforming the country’s archaic education system. In order to push this historic reform, which is commonly...more

District Court Finds First Amendment Does Not Protect Former Guidance Counselor’s Sexually-Explicit Book

The Northern District Court of Illinois found that Rich Township High School District 227 did not violate the free speech rights of former guidance counselor and girls’ basketball coach Bryan Craig when it dismissed him based...more

Christian School Files Lawsuit Against Former Teachers

The Little Oaks Private School, a Christian school based in Thousand Oaks, California, recently filed a lawsuit against two of its former teachers after they threatened a lawsuit. The teachers were fired last August when they...more

Seventh Circuit Dismisses Terminated Principal’s First Amendment Rights Case

In Julie McArdle v. Peoria School District No. 50, the Seventh Circuit upheld a lower court’s dismissal of a terminated school principal’s First Amendment and contract claims against a school district. The principal alleged...more

Employers Can Discipline Employees For Certain Social Media Activity

A handful of cases handed down by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has left employers wondering whether they have any rights at all to regulate, monitor and discipline employees for what they post on Facebook and...more

Public School Teachers, Free Speech, and Hostile Environment

In public school, the constitutional tension can be high on these issues: students' and teachers' free speech rights; teachers' Free Exercise rights; the school's concern for the Establishment clause; when bullying begins;...more

Superintendent’s Lawsuit For improper Discharge Should Have Been Filed In State Court, Federal Court Says

A federal trial court recently held that a superintendent’s lawsuit for improper discharge in violation of her constitutional due process rights and in breach of her employment contract was not proper for federal court...more

Illinois Supreme Court to Tackle Public Employees' Right to Strike

Our previews of the new civil cases granted review at the end of the Illinois Supreme Court’s November term continue with The Board of Education of Peoria School District No. 150 v. The Peoria Federation of Support Staff,...more

Public University Lawfully Terminated HR Vice President Who Published Op-Ed Insensitive To Homosexuals

The University of Toledo terminated an Associate Vice President for Human Resources after she wrote an op-ed column arguing that homosexuals could choose their sexual orientation and thus were not entitled to the same...more

Governor Brown Signs Bills Adding Protection for Religious Practices

Governor Brown recently signed two bills that are designed to combat religious discrimination. The Workplace Religious Freedom Act, AB 1964, amends the Government Code and will protect workers who wear turbans, hijabs, and...more

Sixth Circuit Strikes Down Michigan Affirmative Action Ban

The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals has overturned a Michigan law that banned preferential treatment based on race, sex or national origin in public employment, public education or public contracting. The ruling defeats the 2006...more

Affirmative Action Ban Overturned

In an important decision for Michigan's public universities and proponents of affirmative action, the full Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has struck down Michigan's "Proposal 2." Proposal 2 was enacted by voters in 2006 as...more

Colorado Supreme Court Upholds Judgment Against Ward Churchill

Recently, the Colorado Supreme Court affirmed the trial and appellate courts’ rulings in favor of the University of Colorado in the case of Churchill v. University of Colorado at Boulder. In so ruling, the Court conducted an...more

Teacher’s Retaliation Suit Against School District For Exercising Right of Free Speech Involved a Matter of Public Concern

In Gschwind v. Heiden, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals found that the dismissal of a teacher’s suit against a school district for retaliation for exercising free speech rights involved a matter of public concern and,...more

Religious Schools Must Pay for Employees’ Birth Control

Religious organizations are up in arms over a federal law that now requires them to provide preventive contraceptive services they don’t agree with in their employee health plans. The Patient Protection and Affordable...more

Employee Privacy On Work Computers To Be Decided By Supreme Court

The Supreme Court of Canada has granted leave to appeal the Ontario Court of Appeal’s decision in R. v. Cole, 2011 ONCA 218. Mr. Cole, a teacher, was charged with possession of child pornography and unauthorized use of a...more

Constitutional exceptions in religous employment

Religious entities and communities of faith and their insurance carriers can take heart in pursuing defense judgments after the U.S. Supreme Court acted swiftly and unanimously in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and...more

Legal Alert: Supreme Court Grants Review of University Affirmative Action Practice

In what will likely be the most significant decision regarding affirmative action since the U.S. Supreme Court's 2003 decision in Grutter v. Bollinger, 539 U.S. 306 (2003), the Court has granted certiorari in a case...more

Seventh Circuit Rules in Favor of District in Case Filed by Special Education Support Teacher

In Jackson v. Indian Prairie School District the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals held that the School District did not violate a special education support teacher’s substantive due process rights when the School District...more

Supreme Court Holds that ‘Ministerial Exception’ Protects Church from Teacher’s Retaliation Claim

In a significant, unanimous decision last week, the U.S. Supreme Court confirmed that a “ministerial exception” bars employment discrimination actions brought by employees who fall within this exception against religious...more

United States Supreme Court Recognizes "Ministerial Exception" and Bars Certain Religious Employees from Bringing Employment...

In a significant religious freedom decision, on January 11, 2012, the United States Supreme Court unanimously recognized a “ministerial exception” to employment discrimination laws. The “ministerial exception” had been...more