On April 23, 2025, President Trump signed Executive Order 14281, Restoring Equality of Opportunity and Meritocracy (the “EO”).
This EO states its purpose as a solution to claims of employment discrimination based on...more
This week, we’re focused on federal contractors and the effects that the reinstatement of Executive Orders 14151 and 14173 will have on employers:
President Trump’s executive orders against diversity, equity, and inclusion...more
Just days after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit stayed a preliminary injunction blocking executive orders that refer to the promotion of diversity, equity, and inclusion as “illegal DEI,” the U.S. Equal...more
3/24/2025
/ Affirmative Action ,
Anti-Discrimination Policies ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Executive Orders ,
Title VII
On Friday, February 21, 2025, a federal judge issued a Preliminary Injunction in National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education, et al. v. Trump, blocking significant portions of two Executive Orders (EOs)...more
2/25/2025
/ Constitutional Challenges ,
Diversity ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Educational Institutions ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Executive Orders ,
False Claims Act (FCA) ,
Federal Contractors ,
Fifth Amendment ,
First Amendment ,
Preliminary Injunctions ,
Trump Administration
President Donald Trump has made several significant and sudden changes at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC” or “the Commission”), the agency responsible for enforcing Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of...more
2/12/2025
/ Affirmative Action ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Employment Litigation ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Executive Orders ,
NLRB ,
Title VII ,
Trump Administration
On January 21, 2025, President Trump issued an executive order titled “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity” (the “EO”), which aims to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies...more
In one of his first acts as President in his second term in office, Donald Trump signed an executive order on January 21, 2025, entitled “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity” (“Order”)....more
1/29/2025
/ Affirmative Action ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Contractors ,
OFCCP ,
Trump Administration
This springtime, Washington, D.C. employers may want to spruce up their compliance checklists to stay ahead of new pay transparency obligations. On January 12, 2024, Mayor Bowser signed the Wage Transparency Omnibus Amendment...more
Washington, D.C. is poised to extend the reach of its minimum wage requirements. On January 10, 2024, Washington D.C. Mayor Bowser signed the Minimum Wage Clarification Amendment Act of 2023 (B25-0134) (the “Amendment”),...more
Just over a year into the implementation of the Washington, D.C. Ban on Non-Compete Agreements, as amended by the Non-Compete Clarification Amendment Act of 2022 (together, the “D.C. Non-Compete Ban”), the District of...more
On June 29, 2023, the Supreme Court of the United States issued three opinions. Of them, Groff v. DeJoy (“Groff”),in which the Court unanimously revised the standard for determining whether accommodating an employee’s...more
7/3/2023
/ Civil Rights Act ,
De Minimus Doctrine ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Groff v DeJoy ,
Religious Accommodation ,
Religious Discrimination ,
SCOTUS ,
Substantial Burden ,
Title VII ,
Undue Hardship ,
USPS
Since late October 2021, when the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) launched its Initiative on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Algorithmic Fairness, the agency has taken several steps to ensure AI and other...more
The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, overturning Roe v. Wade and Casey v. Planned Parenthood and leaving the legality of abortion up to each state, inevitably will increase the...more
12/15/2022
/ Abortion ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employer Group Health Plans ,
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ,
Healthcare ,
Human Resources Professionals ,
Medical Leave ,
Paid Time Off (PTO) ,
Pregnancy ,
Reproductive Healthcare Issues
On August 16, 2022, in Williams v. Kincaid, the Fourth Circuit held that gender dysphoria can qualify as a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act (the “ADA”). This is the first federal appellate decision which...more
On August 18, the US Department of Labor, Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (“OFCCP”) announced that it had received a Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) request from the Center for Investigative Reporting...more
Washington, D.C. employers will not need to scrap all their non-compete agreements after all. On July 12, 2022, the D.C. Council (the “Council”) passed the Non-Compete Clarification Amendment Act of 2022 (B24-0256) (the...more
The United States Supreme Court (“SCOTUS”), in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, has held that there is no constitutional right to abortion, overruling Roe v. Wade and Casey v. Planned Parenthood....more
While the fate of two COVID-19 vaccination rules by federal agencies were decided in January by the Supreme Court of the United States, millions of employees working for the federal government, whether directly or as a...more
This week, we look at one of the nuances of the vaccine mandate for health care facilities, the wage and hour laws in effect in 2022, and biometric privacy compliance....more
The Supreme Court recently upheld the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) vaccine mandate, which requires recipients of federal Medicare and Medicaid funding to ensure that employees, including third- party...more
2/17/2022
/ Ambulatory Surgery Centers ,
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ,
Construction Industry ,
Construction Workers ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Employer Mandates ,
General Contractors ,
Healthcare Facilities ,
Healthcare Workers ,
Hospitals ,
Vaccinations
As explained in greater detail by our colleague Stuart M. Gerson, the Supreme Court of the United States handed down two major, and quickly decided, rulings on January 13, 2022. After hearing oral arguments only six days...more
On Monday, December 20, District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser announced a “situational update,” declaring a state of emergency due to the “Winter 2022 Surge” in COVID-19 cases driven by the Delta and Omicron variants. The...more
As we previously reported, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS’s) interim final rule (the “Rule”) requiring full COVID-19 vaccination for staff and others at Medicare- and Medicaid-certified providers and...more
As we previously reported, President Biden issued Executive Order 14042 (the Order), which mandated that employees of contractors and subcontractors performing work on federal contracts be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by...more
As we previously reported, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) interim final rule (“the Rule”) requiring full COVID-19 vaccination for staff and others at Medicare- and Medicaid-certified providers and...more