This week, we are catching up on developments from the Department of Labor for determining whether someone is an independent contractor or employee, a nomination to restore a quorum at the EEOC, continued cuts to K-12...more
Last week marked President Trump’s 100th day in office for his second term. As we have reported over the course of the past few months, the first 100 days of the second Trump administration have been active, with many new...more
5/5/2025
/ Constitutional Challenges ,
Department of Education ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Educational Institutions ,
Employer Responsibilities ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Executive Orders ,
Government Agencies ,
NLRB ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Title IX ,
Trump Administration ,
Universities
On Wednesday, April 23, 2025, President Trump issued several Executive Orders targeting various elements of his policy agenda. Below, we discuss orders that aim to eliminate the use of disparate-impact liability under Title...more
We took the week off from our Week in Review alert last week as it was a (relatively) slow week. However, as it tends to happen after a slow week, developments picked back up this week....more
We saw a flurry of activity this week from the Supreme Court, with rulings that employers and educational institutions should be aware of. Specifically, the Supreme Court ruled in the Trump Administrations’ favor on several...more
4/14/2025
/ Appeals ,
Department of Education ,
Educational Institutions ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Contractors ,
NLRB ,
SCOTUS ,
Title IX ,
Trump Administration
It was another big week for the Department of Education, with President Trump signing an Executive Order on Thursday instructing Education Secretary Linda McMahon to take actions to “close” the Department. President Trump’s...more
3/24/2025
/ Civil Rights Act ,
Department of Education ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Education Reform ,
Educational Institutions ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Executive Orders ,
OCR ,
Student Loans ,
Title VI ,
Trump Administration
Headlines this week largely focused on the Department of Education, and rightfully so. As announced on Tuesday, President Trump’s administration terminated over 1,300 Department of Education employees this week – nearly 50%...more
3/18/2025
/ Civil Rights Act ,
Dear Colleague Letter ,
Department of Education ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Educational Institutions ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Employment Policies ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Funding ,
OCR ,
Title IX ,
Trump Administration ,
Universities
We reported last week that the pace of executive orders coming from the new presidential administration had begun to slow. While, overall, the rate does still appear to be slowing, this week has been a notable one....more
3/11/2025
/ Anti-Discrimination Policies ,
Dear Colleague Letter ,
Department of Education ,
Discrimination ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Executive Orders ,
Harassment ,
NLRB ,
OCR ,
Title IX ,
Title VI ,
Trump Administration
Each week as the new presidential administration takes shape, we get a clearer picture of how its priorities will affect federal agencies, and how those changes will affect the employers and educational institutions that...more
2/19/2025
/ Colleges ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Department of Energy (DOE) ,
Educational Institutions ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Government Agencies ,
NLRB ,
OCR ,
Student Athletes ,
Title IX ,
Title VII ,
Trump Administration
In the evening hours of Monday, January 27, 2025, President Donald Trump fired National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo and Democratic Board member Gwynne Wilcox. While the termination of...more
On Thursday, January 9, 2025, Judge John C. Reeves of the Eastern District of Kentucky issued an opinion and order vacating the Final Rule that implemented the 2024 Title IX Regulations. The decision by Judge Reeves has the...more
On June 28, 2024, in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council, upending 40 years of judicial precedent holding that federal courts should defer to...more
On June 28, 2024, in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council, upending 40 years of judicial precedent holding that federal courts should defer to...more
On June 13, 2024, the Supreme Court held that the National Labor Relations Board (the “Board”) is subject to the same standard as any other litigant when it seeks a preliminary injunction in unfair labor practice cases. This...more
6/20/2024
/ Employee Rights ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Labor Relations ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Preliminary Injunctions ,
Starbucks ,
Starbucks Corp. v McKinney ,
Unfair Labor Practices ,
Union Elections ,
Unions
In an anticipated yet groundbreaking turn of events, on April 23, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) voted 3-2 to issue a Final Non-Compete Clause Rule (the “Final Rule”) which bans U.S. employers from using...more
4/26/2024
/ Competition ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employer Responsibilities ,
Employment Contract ,
Federal Bans ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Final Rules ,
FTC Act ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Notice Requirements ,
Restrictive Covenants ,
Unfair Competition
Social media has given public officials the ability to share information quickly and easily with their constituents and followers, even on their own personal Facebook and other social media accounts. When using a personal...more
For more than a year, the Federal Trade Commission has been mulling on whether the federal government should regulate employee non-compete agreements. Traditionally, those agreements limit where and for whom an employee may...more
In a unanimous decision, the Illinois Supreme Court determined that the Biometric Information Privacy Act (“BIPA”) is pre-empted by the Labor Management Relations Act for many employees covered by a collective bargaining...more
4/25/2023
/ Biometric Information ,
Biometric Information Privacy Act ,
Class Action ,
Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBA) ,
Data Collection ,
Data Privacy ,
Employee Privacy Rights ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Labor Management Relations Act (LMRA) ,
Personal Data ,
Personally Identifiable Information ,
Preemption
Governor Pritzker has signed into law the recently passed “Paid Leave for All Workers Act” (“PLAWA”), guaranteeing paid time off for virtually all working Illinoisans. Set to go into effect on January 1, 2024, the PLAWA will...more
In a reminder that it takes more than a big paycheck to be exempt from the overtime requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”), the U.S. Supreme Court held in Helix Energy Solutions Group, Inc. v. Hewitt that a...more
2/28/2023
/ Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Exempt-Employees ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Federal Labor Laws ,
Helix Energy Solutions Group Inc v Hewitt No 21-984 ,
Highly Compensated Employees ,
Over-Time ,
SCOTUS ,
Wage and Hour ,
White-Collar Exemptions
On Friday, February 17, 2023, the Illinois Supreme Court issued another blockbuster ruling interpreting the Biometric Information Privacy Act (“BIPA”). In a 4 to 3 decision, the Court in Cothorn v. White Castle Systems held...more
2/20/2023
/ Accrual Requirements ,
Biometric Information ,
Biometric Information Privacy Act ,
Damages ,
Data Collection ,
Data Privacy ,
Employee Privacy Rights ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Facial Recognition Technology ,
Fingerprints ,
IL Supreme Court ,
Personal Data ,
Personally Identifiable Information
The Illinois Biometric Privacy Act (“BIPA”) has been a fertile source of class action litigation in recent years as courts continue to grapple with the scope of potential liability of employers and other entities who have...more
2/13/2023
/ Biometric Information ,
Biometric Information Privacy Act ,
Class Action ,
Data Collection ,
Data Privacy ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Fingerprints ,
Personal Data ,
Personally Identifiable Information ,
Statutory Violations
On December 29, 2022, President Biden signed the 2023 Omnibus Spending Bill into law. Buried in the legislation were two new laws providing additional protection for pregnant and nursing employees in the workplace: the...more
1/12/2023
/ Breastfeeding ,
Employee Rights ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Labor Reform ,
New Legislation ,
Pregnancy ,
Pregnancy Discrimination ,
Pregnant Workers Fairness Act ,
Providing Urgent Maternal Protections for Nursing Mothers Act (“PUMP Act”) ,
Reasonable Accommodation