As the recent murders of innocent African American civilians like George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and countless others remind us, the United States has a long way to go in its struggle for racial justice.  While current efforts against racial inequality are rightfully focused on police brutality, race discrimination in employment has a long […]

The past few weeks brought mixed results for plaintiffs at the Supreme Court. Although the Court surprisingly extended Title VII’s protections based on gender identity and sexual orientation in Bostock v. Clayton County, the Court wrapped up its term by extending the so-called “ministerial exception”—which exempts certain employees of religious institutions from employment protections—to a […]

The Supreme Court recently decided two cases, Our Lady of Guadalupe v. Morrissey-Berru and St. James School v. Biel, both on appeal from the Ninth Circuit, that clarified the scope of the so-called “ministerial exception” to anti-discrimination laws. According to the Court, under that exception, “courts are bound to stay out of employment disputes involving […]

Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia has rightly been heralded as a true milestone for LGBTQ rights, including by my colleague Alok Nadig, who describes the decision here. Bostock brings LGBT Americans into the fold of Title VII’s protections against discrimination “because of sex” and has important ramifications with regard to other federal laws adopting similarly-worded […]

The Supreme Court’s opinion released earlier this week in Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia represents an outstanding milestone in the LGBTQ civil rights movement, and numerous posts and articles rightly celebrate this, including this one by my colleague Alok Nadig. The opinion also reminds us of several concepts that can benefit all victims of unlawful […]

Yesterday, in its long-anticipated decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia, the U.S. Supreme Court squarely held that discrimination against gay and transgender employees in the workplace is illegal under federal law.  The case arose from the terminations of three brave plaintiffs from their places of employment: Gerald Bostock, who was fired from his job […]

A new Virginia law expands anti-discrimination protections for employees in the state and gives employees and civil rights advocates many reasons to celebrate.  Here are five. 1. Virginia employees are explicitly protected from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and sexual identity. When the law goes into effect on July 1, 2020, there will […]

Imagine this scenario: a corporation runs health spas, each of which is divided into a men’s division and a women’s division that operate on alternate days.  Male managers run the men’s division, while female managers run the women’s division.  Because there are far more female customers interested in spa services, the corporation decides to compensate […]

The unprecedented challenge of the global COVID-19 pandemic has caused uncertainty in every aspect of society. Certainly, the economy has been no exception, and employers are taking a variety of approaches and tactics in an attempt to weather the storm. Many employers are asking their employees to take pay cuts, with percentages often varying by […]

Evidence-gathering is one of the most critical parts of any employment discrimination lawsuit. In the normal course of litigation, wrongfully terminated employees may use discovery tools to obtain evidence to prove their case. However, sometimes—due to mistrust in an employer, lack of knowledge about the legal system, or uncertainty that they even want to file […]