Labor & Employment Law: Vermont and Federal Legislative Update
#WorkforceWednesday: SCOTUS Decision on LGBTQ Employees, EEOC on Older Workers Returning to Work - Employment Law This Week®
“The rock and the hard place.” How often do employers find themselves here? If employers have LGBTQ employees in certain states, they are now bumping up against the “rock” of federal laws, like Title VII and Title IX, and the...more
As long expected, the U.S. Department of Education issued amendments to Title IX regulations following the public comment period. The amended regulations—totaling 1,577 pages—make clear that sex discrimination under Title IX...more
On April 19, 2024, the Biden Administration released its long-awaited overhaul of the Title IX regulations governing investigations of alleged sexual misconduct and sex discrimination in federally-funded education programs....more
Late last week the Connecticut State Department of Education (“CSDE” or “Department”) issued new guidance addressing the rights of transgender students in Connecticut schools. Entitled Guidance on Civil Rights Protections...more
Adams v. School Board of St. John’s County, 3:17-cv-00739, 2022 WL 18003879 (11th Cir. 2022) Adams, a transgender boy, sued the board of his Florida school district (“the School Board”) after his high school prohibited...more
Eleventh Circuit Says School’s Policy of Assigning Bathrooms Based on Biological Sex Does Not Violate U.S. Constitution - The issue on appeal for the Eleventh Circuit to decide was whether separating the use of male and...more
Recent court and OCR decisions regarding transgender students and employees reflect widely varying responses to the Biden administration’s efforts to expand protections for LGBTQ+ individuals under federal law, including...more
Executive Summary: June is Pride Month. On June 16, 2021, Miguel Cardona, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education (the “Department”) under President Joe Biden, issued a Notice of Interpretation stating that Title IX...more
Last week, in a major break from its policy under the Trump administration, the US Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights issued a Notice of Interpretation, explaining that it will enforce Title IX's prohibition...more
Educational institutions all over the country have been grappling with the nuances of Title IX compliance since the new Title IX regulations were released last summer. With many stakeholders unhappy with the final...more
LGBTQ+ students are now protected from discrimination under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, a federal law that protects students from sex-based discrimination in public schools. As of last week, Title IX’s...more
On June 16, 2021, the U.S. Department of Education ("DOE") issued a "Notice of Interpretation" expanding protection of gay and transgender students under Title IX to include educational institutions receiving federal monies....more
In a somewhat unsurprising development, the United States Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights [OCR] has issued a new interpretation of Title IX, recognizing that it prohibits discrimination on the basis of...more
Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, or OCR, issued a Notice of Interpretation stating that Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 prohibits discrimination against LGBTQ+ students and...more
On Wednesday, June 16, the United States Department of Education issued a Notice of Interpretation (“Interpretation”) “to make clear that the Department interprets Title IX’s prohibition on sex discrimination to encompass...more
It will fully enforce Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in education programs and activities that receive federal financial assistance from...more
We have been speculating for quite some time now about what the U.S. Supreme Court will do with Title IX after its decision last term in Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia. The landmark Bostock decision held that Title VII of...more
On January 20, 2021, President Joe Biden signed the "Executive Order on Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation.” The Executive Order explicitly extends the holding of...more
Shortly after the election, we published a blog entitled discussing then-President-Elect Joe Biden’s vow to make passage of the Equality Act (prohibiting most forms of discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender...more
At the beginning of last week, Donald Trump was President of the United States and we were being flooded with last minute Title IX and civil rights guidance from the outgoing Department of Education. As we near the end of the...more
After months of speculation as to how a new administration may enforce Title IX, newly inaugurated President Biden wasted no time in addressing the matter. On his first day in office, he issued seventeen executive orders,...more
On January 8, 2021, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights issued a memorandum containing its interpretation of Bostock v. Clayton and its lack of effect on OCR’s interpretation of Title IX. The U.S....more
Adams v. Sch. Bd. of St. Johns Cty., 968 F.3d 1286 (11th Cir. 2020). Factual Summary: Drew Adams is a transgender male who was prohibited from using the boys’ restroom at his public high school. In the eighth grade,...more
This week, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review a decision allowing transgender high school students to use bathrooms and locker rooms consistent with their gender identities. The High Court’s rebuff means the lower...more
In a major win for transgender rights, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled in favor a transgender teenager who wanted to use the boys’ bathroom at his former school, finding that the school district violated his...more