#WorkforceWednesday: CA Whistleblower Retaliation Cases, NYC Pay Transparency Law, Biden’s Labor Agenda - Employment Law This Week®
A recent decision from the Eleventh Circuit highlights the difficulty employers will have eliminating employment discrimination or retaliation claims before trial in those jurisdictions that apply the "convincing mosaic"...more
On March 6, 2026, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit issued a significant decision clarifying how discrimination claims brought by majority-group plaintiffs should be analyzed under the New Jersey Law Against...more
On March 6, 2026, the Third Circuit ruled in Massey v. Borough of Bergenfield that New Jersey’s approach to claims of reverse discrimination was irrevocably undermined by the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Ames v. Ohio Dep’t...more
“Majority-group” plaintiffs will now have an easier time bringing employment discrimination claims under New Jersey state law. The 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals recently tossed out New Jersey’s longstanding heightened...more
Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to visit the legal soundness of McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 U.S. 792 (1973), a seminal decision that has outlined the burdens of proof in employment discrimination cases,...more
This past week brought several notable developments in employment law. The full Fifth Circuit agreed to revisit a major constitutional challenge to the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA), raising policy and...more
The Eighth District Court of Appeals in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, recently reversed a trial court’s grant of summary judgment in the age discrimination case Selzer v. Union Home Mtge. Corp., 2026-Ohio-38. ...more
The Eleventh Circuit’s recent decision Ismael v. Roundtree, No. 25-10604 (11th Cir. Dec. 5, 2025) reversed the United States District Court for the Southern District of Georgia’s grant of summary judgment in favor of...more
For decades, courts have relied on the McDonnell Douglas burden-shifting framework as the primary method for evaluating employment discrimination claims based on circumstantial evidence. As I discussed earlier this year,...more
The Eleventh Circuit has further downplayed the importance of the lock-step McDonnell Douglas framework for evaluating summary judgment in employment discrimination and retaliation claims, in its latest decision in Ismael v....more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit recently reaffirmed that temporal proximity, the closeness in time between an employee’s protected activity and an adverse employment action, is not, by itself, enough to prove...more
Marlean Ames (“Plaintiff”), a heterosexual woman, was an employee of the Ohio Department of Youth Services (“the Department”). Ames was hired by the Department in 2004 for a secretarial position but was later promoted to...more
Terminating an employee can be one of the most consequential decisions an employer can make. The best way to mitigate risk? Honesty....more
On June 5, 2025, a unanimous Supreme Court eliminated the requirement for a higher evidentiary standard for majority plaintiffs (white, male, heterosexual, etc.) who claim discrimination under Title VII (also known as reverse...more
The U.S. Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision on June 5, 2025, resolving a U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit split in the matter of Ames v. Ohio Dep't. of Youth Servs., 605 U.S. ____ (2025). The Supreme Court...more
Since 1973, federal courts reviewing claims of employment discrimination have used a framework first established by the U.S. Supreme Court’s McDonnell Douglas decision. Under this framework, plaintiffs must show a prima facie...more
Last week, the Supreme Court accepted review of Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services. The court will address a circuit split regarding the standard courts apply in discrimination claims brought by majority group...more
Executive Summary - In January, the Eleventh Circuit issued a decision that likely will impact employers’ litigation strategies in discrimination cases. In Tynes v. Florida Department of Juvenile Justice, the court...more
The McDonnell Douglas burden-shifting framework used to evaluate employment discrimination claims may not be permanently cast aside, but a recent decision reminds us that it is not the only means through which employees can...more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh has spoken, and employers that once relied exclusively on McDonnell Douglas might need to rethink their litigation strategy in employment-discrimination cases. On December 12,...more
On December 5, 2022, the Supreme Court of the Virgin Islands upheld a 2019 jury verdict, which found that Caribbean airline LIAT (1974), Ltd., had discharged its former area manager, William Cherubin, because of his age in...more
In Scheer v. Regents of the University of California, the Second District Court of Appeal held that the McDonnell-Douglas burden-shifting framework applies to claims asserted pursuant to Health & Safety Code Section 1278.5....more
The Minnesota Supreme Court recently reaffirmed the use of the familiar McDonnell Douglas burden-shifting framework to analyze claims of retaliation under Minnesota law, despite the ask by the plaintiff-appellant and amici to...more
The California Supreme Court issued an opinion in Lawson v. PPG Architectural Finishes, Inc. (S266001, Jan. 27, 2022), addressing the Ninth Circuit’s question of the proper method for presenting and evaluating a claim of...more
On 27 January 2022, the California Supreme Court answered a question certified to it by the Ninth Circuit: whether whistleblower claims under California Labor Code section 1102.5 are governed by the burden-shifting test for...more