On April 23, 2025, President Donald Trump signed the “Restoring Equality of Opportunity and Meritocracy” executive order (the Disparate Impact EO) directing federal agencies to eliminate the use of disparate impact liability...more
There are several concurrent challenges to President Donald Trump’s “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity” executive order (Anti-DEI EO). Previously, the U.S. District Court for the District of...more
4/2/2025
/ Constitutional Challenges ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Executive Orders ,
False Claims Act (FCA) ,
Federal Contractors ,
Illinois ,
Injunctions ,
Preliminary Injunctions ,
Reverse Discrimination ,
Title VII ,
Trump Administration
Following President Donald Trump’s issuance of the “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity” executive order, which sought to curb “illegal” diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives,...more
On March 14, 2025, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals stayed the nationwide preliminary injunction previously issued by the District of Maryland, which had enjoined certain aspects of Executive Order No. 14173, President...more
On February 21, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland preliminarily enjoined certain aspects of Executive Order No. 14173, President Donald Trump’s “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based...more
2/26/2025
/ Affirmative Action ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Diversity ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Executive Orders ,
False Claims Act (FCA) ,
Federal Contractors ,
First Amendment ,
Title VII ,
Trump Administration
President Donald Trump has signed more than 60 executive orders since taking office, including Executive Order 14173, titled “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity” (EO 14173 or the Executive...more
On January 20, 2025, President Donald Trump issued an executive order titled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government” (Defending Women EO). The Defending Women...more
2/5/2025
/ Anti-Discrimination Policies ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Equal Protection ,
Executive Orders ,
Gender Identity ,
LGBTQ ,
Sex Discrimination ,
Sexual Harassment ,
Title VII ,
Transgender ,
Trump Administration
The landscape of federal employment priorities is being redefined. On January 22, 2025, President Trump issued an executive order (EO) titled “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity” (the Ending...more
1/27/2025
/ Affirmative Action ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Compliance ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Diversity ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Executive Orders ,
False Claims Act (FCA) ,
Federal Contractors ,
Government Agencies ,
OFCCP ,
Trump Administration
Last week, the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas entered a preliminary injunction barring the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) from pursuing an enforcement action against a federal contractor, ABM...more
Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 decision in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College and Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. University of North Carolina, reverse discrimination...more
The increasing use of artificial intelligence (“AI”) tools to assist employers with recruiting decisions invites the question of who can be held legally responsible if those decisions allegedly are discriminatory. Typically,...more
On April 17, 2024, the Supreme Court decided Muldrow v. St. Louis, No. 22‑193, holding that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discriminatory job transfers that cause “some harm” with respect to the terms,...more
4/24/2024
/ Adverse Employment Action ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Employee Transfers ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Employment Litigation ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Lateral Transfers ,
Muldrow v City of St Louis ,
SCOTUS ,
Sex Discrimination ,
Title VII
In December 2023, New York City’s Mayor signed into law a new section of the New York City Administrative Code (Local Law 161, §32-102) that requires the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP), in conjunction...more
Last week, the Delaware Supreme Court reversed a Chancery Court decision that we wrote about previously, which invalidated a forfeiture-for-competition provision as an unreasonable restraint of trade. The Ainslie et al. v....more
On November 21, 2023, New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed Senate Bill S5026 into law, enacting the “Freelance Isn’t Free Act” (“the Act”). The Act provides that freelance workers or solo independent contractors (referred to...more
As our colleagues recently discussed, on October 30, 2023, President Biden signed a sweeping Executive Order regarding the Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence (the “EO”). The EO...more
11/9/2023
/ Algorithms ,
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Artificial Intelligence ,
Bias ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Executive Orders ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Federal Contractors ,
Joe Biden ,
OFCCP ,
Secretary of Labor ,
Title VII ,
Transparency
The federal Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (“PWFA”) became effective on June 27, 2023. Employers with 15 or more employees are now required to reasonably accommodate a worker’s “known limitation” related to pregnancy,...more
Federal law governing affirmative action and non-discrimination in employment is unaffected by the Supreme Court’s highly publicized affirmative action decision published June 29, 2023. Still, the decision is sure to...more
7/6/2023
/ Affirmative Action ,
Civil Rights Act ,
College Admissions ,
Diversity ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Equal Protection ,
Fourteenth Amendment ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Job Applicants ,
Popular ,
Race Discrimination ,
SCOTUS ,
Students for Fair Admissions v Harvard College ,
Students for Fair Admissions v University of North Carolina ,
Universities
On June 29, 2023, the Supreme Court decided Groff v. DeJoy in a unanimous ruling that clarifies the “undue hardship” standard under which an employer can deny a requested religious accommodation under Title VII of the Civil...more
7/6/2023
/ Civil Rights Act ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
De Minimus Doctrine ,
Employer Mandates ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
FEHA ,
Groff v DeJoy ,
Religious Accommodation ,
Religious Discrimination ,
SCOTUS ,
Substantial Burden ,
Title VII ,
Undue Hardship ,
USPS
On June 7, the New York Senate, by a vote of 40-21, passed a prohibition on non-compete agreements in a modified bill, 3100-A (“Bill”). On June 20, 2023 the New York State Assembly passed the Bill by a vote of 95-52. The Bill...more
On May 30, 2023, the General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board, Jennifer Abruzzo, issued GC Memorandum 23-08, asserting that non-compete agreements generally violate the National Labor Relations Act. Much like the...more
The accelerating pace of artificial intelligence innovation illustrated by ChatGPT, Bard, and other applications that have captured the world’s attention bring the promise of better and more effective tools on which employers...more
On April 6, 2023, New York City’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (“DCWP”) issued final rules governing Local Law 144 of 2021. That law prohibits employers in New York City from using automated employment...more
The Delaware Chancery Court recently invalidated restrictive covenants in a limited partnership agreement, finding the covenants to be “facially overbroad” and declining to “blue pencil” those provisions. Significantly, the...more
On January 10, 2023, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) published a draft Strategic Enforcement Plan (“SEP”) in the Federal Register. In it, the EEOC outlines the enforcement priorities that will guide its...more