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Mealey's Employment

  • September 17, 2025

    6th Circuit Cites Transgender Professor’s ‘Twitter Tirade’ In Affirming Judgment

    CINCINNATI — A Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed an Ohio federal judge’s order granting summary judgment motions filed by a university and two faculty members regarding a transgender professor’s Title VII, First Amendment and perceived disability claims after a promotion was rescinded following the professor’s “weeks-long, profanity-laden Twitter tirade insulting colleagues and the university.”

  • September 17, 2025

    6th Circuit Says Hospital Waited Too Long To Arbitrate In Religious Bias Case

    CINCINNATI — A Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel found that a Michigan hospital’s request for arbitration “came too late” and that it lost its right to arbitrate under the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) after it placed proceedings in a “default” by first moving to dismiss the case of a former employee who filed federal religious discrimination and related claims after she was fired for refusing to offer “gender transition” drugs or use “biology-obscuring pronouns” when speaking to patients.

  • September 16, 2025

    Split D.C. Circuit Denies Stay Of TRO In Federal Reserve Governor’s Firing Suit

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A divided District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Sept. 15 declined to stay a district court’s temporary restraining order (TRO) as to the purported removal of Federal Reserve Governor Lisa D. Cook.

  • September 16, 2025

    Assistant U.S. Attorney Says She Was Fired Due To Criticism Of Father, James Comey

    NEW YORK — Maurene Comey sued the federal government on Sept. 15 in a federal court in New York, alleging that she was unlawfully fired because her father is James Comey, the former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and/or because of her perceived political beliefs.

  • September 16, 2025

    2 Of 3 Plaintiffs In 28-Year Teacher Class Suit Granted Incentive Awards

    NEW YORK — Two of three named plaintiffs in a more than 28-year-long race bias class suit over teacher licensing requirements in New York City were each awarded incentive awards of $272,996 by a federal judge in New York, who reserved judgment on the $2.9 million incentive award requested by the final named plaintiff as briefing is not yet complete.

  • September 15, 2025

    6th Circuit: ‘Limited’ Sex History Evidence Allowed In Fired Hospital Worker Case

    CINCINNATI — A Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel found in affirming a lower court judgment that a federal judge in Tennessee did not err when ruling that a fired hospital employee was required to prove that she believed an alleged sexual encounter with a security guard was not consensual to make a sexual assault claim pursuant to a Title VII retaliation claim and that allowing admission of “limited evidence” of the employee’s sexual history at trial was not an abuse of discretion.

  • September 15, 2025

    Magistrate Approves $1.5 Million Settlement Of Garda Data Breach Suit

    WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — More than five months after he preliminarily approved a $1.5 million settlement between a security company and a group of employees that sued it over the theft of their personally identifiable information (PII) in a 2023 data breach, a Florida federal magistrate judge granted final approval, deeming the deal in compliance with federal rules and, as such, “fair, adequate and reasonable.”

  • September 15, 2025

    California Attorney Must Pay $10K For AI Hallucinations In Employment Appeal

    LOS ANGELES — A California appellate panel on Sept. 12 said it is the first court in the state to address an attorney using AI and filing briefs containing “fake legal authority” and ordered the lawyer to pay $10,000 in sanctions for filing two briefs written with “AI tools” in an unsuccessful appeal of summary judgment granted in favor of a company and its owner on her claims for retaliation, termination and violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL).

  • September 12, 2025

    1st Circuit: No Preliminary Injunction Stay In Fed Agencies Staff Reductions Case

    BOSTON — A First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Sept. 11 denied a motion by federal government agencies and President Donald J. Trump to stay a trial court’s preliminary injunction in a case brought by nearly two dozen states that restrains the federal government from implementing an executive order (EO) “attempt[ing] to dismantle congressionally sanctioned agencies” as applied to the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) and the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS).

  • September 12, 2025

    Union Seeks 45-Day Stay Of Collective Bargaining EO Injunction Appeal

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) moved in the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals for a 45-day stay of briefing in the government’s appeal of a preliminary injunction granted by a trial court in the union’s challenge of a March executive order (EO) that the union says eliminates collective bargaining for approximately two-thirds of the federal workforce; NTEU argues that the ruling being appealed “will imminently become moot” when summary judgment cross-motions are decided.

  • September 12, 2025

    Dismissal Of DOGE With Leave To Amend Granted In Federal Worker RIF Suit

    SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge in California partially granted a motion to dismiss a complaint challenging an executive order (EO) and memorandum implementing the EO that resulted in widespread layoffs of federal workers only as to the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) but granted the unions, groups and municipalities leave to amend and properly name U.S. DOGE Service as a defendant.

  • September 12, 2025

    DOL Tackles Deferred Incentive Compensation Issue In Advisory Opinion

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Weighing in on an issue that has recently featured prominently in dozens of arbitrations and several lawsuits, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) issued an advisory opinion taking the view that a certain deferred incentive compensation program is “a bonus program” not governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. 

  • September 12, 2025

    10th Circuit Won’t Revisit Labor Practices Ruling In Hallmark Film Production Case

    DENVER —  The 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied a petition for rehearing or rehearing en banc filed by two Utah film corporations over a split panel’s ruling that that the National Labor Relations Board had “substantial evidence” to find that the companies committed unfair labor practices in violation of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) when they threatened to retaliate against employees on the set of two Hallmark movies if the employees joined or supported a union and refused to call them back from layoff.

  • September 12, 2025

    6th Circuit Revives FMLA Interference, Pregnancy Discrimination Claims

    CINCINNATI — In a mixed ruling that drew a partial dissent, the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals reversed summary judgment for a hospital ultrasonographer on pregnancy discrimination and Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) interference claims but affirmed summary judgment against her on all other discrimination and retaliation claims.

  • September 11, 2025

    En Banc 11th Circuit Finds Health Plan Not Discriminatory To Transgender Worker

    ATLANTA — An 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals en banc majority found that an exclusion in a Georgia county sheriff’s department’s health insurance plan that denied coverage for “sex change” surgery and treatment to a transgender employee “is not facially discriminatory under Title VII” in reversing a federal judge’s judgment, vacating a permanent injunction and remanding the case for further proceedings.

  • September 11, 2025

    Split Panel Enjoins Interference With Copyright Register’s Job Pending Appeal

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A divided District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Sept. 10 enjoined various federal government parties from interfering with Shira Perlmutter’s service as the register of copyrights and director of the U.S. Copyright Office pending appeal; Perlmutter appealed a trial court’s denial of her motion for preliminary injunction in a case challenging her purported firing in May by President Donald J. Trump.

  • September 10, 2025

    5th Circuit Panel Denies Rehearing For Reinstatement Of Fired Miss. School Worker

    NEW ORLEANS — A Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel was unpersuaded by a Mississippi school district’s argument that a Federal Rule of Civil Procedure limiting principle merited rehearing of a decision to reinstate a fired employee and reverse and remand the denial of the employee’s request for reinstatement or front pay in denying both panel rehearing and rehearing en banc.

  • September 10, 2025

    Employee Awarded $425,000 For Vaccine Refusal Firing Seeks Front, Back Pay

    CHICAGO — After an Illinois federal jury awarded him $425,000 for violations of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act stemming from his termination for refusing to become vaccinated against COVID-19 after being denied a religious exemption, a former transit authority employee filed a post-trial brief in support of his request that he be awarded front and back pay.

  • September 10, 2025

    4th Circuit Stays Mandate In Unions’ DOGE Data Access Case Until Petition Decided

    RICHMOND, Va. — The Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals temporarily stayed the mandate in an appeal over U.S. Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) access to individuals’ personally identifiable information (PII) until after a petition for rehearing en banc filed by the unions and veterans who brought the complaint is considered.

  • September 10, 2025

    Federal Reserve Governor Granted TRO In Suit Over Purported Firing

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A temporary restraining order (TRO) as to the purported removal of Federal Reserve Governor Lisa D. Cook was granted Sept. 9 by a federal judge in the District of Columbia, who ruled that Cook’s case and actions by President Donald J. Trump “raise many serious questions of first impression that the Court believes will benefit from further briefing on a non-emergency timeline” and that Cook “made a strong showing that her purported removal was done in violation of the Federal Reserve Act’s ‘for cause’ provision.”

  • September 10, 2025

    Employer Seeks Extension For Response To McDonnell Douglas Evidence Petition

    WASHINGTON, D.C — A Hardee’s franchisee accused by a former manager of disability bias and Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) violations moved on Sept. 9 for a one-month extension to respond to the employee’s petition for a writ of certiorari that asks the U.S. Supreme Court to consider two questions concerning McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, pretext and motives at the summary judgment stage.

  • September 10, 2025

    9th Circuit: Judge Tossed Trader Joe’s Trademark Suit Against Union Too Soon

    SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel revived Trader Joe’s Co.’s trademark infringement suit against a labor union representing employees at the company’s grocery stores, finding that a California federal judge wrongly applied the likelihood-of-confusion test when evaluating if tote bags and other products sold by the union infringed the company’s marks and prematurely held that the Norris-LaGuardia Act (NLGA) barred injunctive relief.

  • September 10, 2025

    Judge: Expert Retained By Ex-Employees Can Opine On Value Of Stock Options

    NEW ORLEANS — An expert retained by former employees of a smoothie franchise company can testify on the value of stock options they allege were wrongfully revoked after they left the company, a Louisiana federal judge ruled Sept. 9 in denying a motion to exclude.

  • September 10, 2025

    FTC Dismisses Noncompete Rule Challenge Appeal As It Seeks Info On Agreements

    NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals granted a motion by the Federal Trade Commission to dismiss the commission’s 2024 appeal of a federal judge in Texas’ decision to strike down the FTC’s 2024 noncompete final rule largely banning noncompete agreements.

  • September 09, 2025

    Split 4th Circuit: States Lack Standing To Sue Over Federal Worker Firings

    RICHMOND, Va. — Nineteen states and the District of Columbia lack standing under Article III of the U.S. Constitution to sue over the firing of probationary federal workers en masse, a divided Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled Sept. 8, vacating a trial court’s preliminary injunction and remanding with instruction that the case be dismissed.