Newsletter RSS

Mealey's Employment

  • April 10, 2026

    Fired Worker Who Refused Vaccine Did Not Show Religious Conflict With Vaccination

    PORTLAND, Ore. — Adopting a federal magistrate judge’s findings and recommendation, an Oregon federal judge granted an employer’s motion for summary judgment in a lawsuit by a former employee who alleged that the company failed to make a good faith effort to accommodate her religious beliefs when it terminated her for refusing to take the COVID-19 vaccine pursuant to company policy during the pandemic.

  • April 10, 2026

    Sanctions Imposed For Canceled Deposition But Not For Fake Case Citation

    SAN JOSE, Calif. — Because the plaintiff’s attorney in an employment discrimination case promptly corrected an “erroneously submitted” opposition brief and assured the court that her firm has taken action to prevent such filings in the future, a federal magistrate judge in California denied the employer’s motion to sanction the attorney for filing a brief containing what it claimed was a hallucinated case citation generated by artificial intelligence; the magistrate judge did, however, sanction the plaintiff and attorney for the last-minute cancellation of a scheduled deposition.

  • April 10, 2026

    AI Hiring Startup Hit With Data Breach Class Suit After Supply Chain Attack

    SAN FRANCISCO — A New York man filed a class complaint in a federal court in California seeking monetary and equitable relief for a putative class of former contract workers and customers of a San Francisco-based artificial intelligence hiring startup whose data was allegedly stolen due to a supply chain attack.

  • April 09, 2026

    3 Universities Dismissed In Student Athletes’ Class, Collective Wage Suit

    PHILADELPHIA — A federal judge in Pennsylvania dismissed three Division I schools — Sacred Heart University, University of Notre Dame du Lac and Duke University — from a putative class and collective action lawsuit by former student athletes who allege they are employees who are owed wages by their respective schools and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).

  • April 09, 2026

    9th Circuit Reverses Arbitration Denial In Fired Worker’s Discrimination Case

    SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel reversed and remanded a California federal judge’s denial of a motion to compel arbitration between a fired medical software salesperson and her employer, holding that a clause within an arbitration agreement that gives an arbitrator the power to resolve the validity of the agreement “clearly and unmistakably reserves” that authority to the arbitrator and “should be respected” even if a severability clause exists.

  • April 08, 2026

    Federal Jury Awards Trucker $5M In Employment Discrimination Suit

    SAN FRANCISCO — A jury in a California federal court determined in a verdict issued after a seven-day trial that an African-American driver for a construction products supplier who sued his employer for racial and disability discrimination and the creation of a hostile work environment pursuant to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) proved his claims and is entitled to $5 million in noneconomic damages.

  • April 08, 2026

    7th Circuit: BIPA Amendment Applies To Cases Pending At Time Of Enactment

    CHICAGO — Ruling on three consolidated appeals regarding whether an amendment to the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) limiting recovery to a single violation applies retroactively to cases pending when the amendment was enacted, the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals reversed and remanded lower court rulings holding that the amendment applies prospectively only, finding that the amendment applies retroactively to the cases pending at the time it was enacted because it “impacts only the statutory damages available to plaintiffs.”

  • April 07, 2026

    DOGE, Others Seek 2nd Supreme Court Review Of Discovery Orders In FOIA Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. DOGE Service (referred to as both DOGE and USDS), the DOGE acting administrator, Elon Musk and others in the federal government filed a petition for a writ of certiorari in the U.S. Supreme Court asking the justices to take up for the second time questions concerning discovery in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) case regarding DOGE’s authority and role in mass firings in the federal government.

  • April 07, 2026

    Judge Grants Motion To Unseal Names Of DOGE Agents In Privacy Act Violations Suit

    NEW YORK — Finding that the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) failed in “their burden of demonstrating that continued sealing of the DOGE Agents’ identities is necessary to preserve a higher value,” a New York federal judge granted a motion filed by unions and related parties to unseal the names of 16 DOGE agents in a suit alleging that DOGE violated the Privacy Act and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) by accessing personnel records maintained by the OPM.

  • April 07, 2026

    ACLU, 100s Of Attorneys, Others Support Law Firms’ Arguments In Appeals Over EOs

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other nonprofits filed one of more than three dozen amicus curiae briefs supporting arguments by four law firms made in separate appellee briefs in the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that President Donald J. Trump’s March and April 2025 executive orders (EOs) targeting the firms and describing them as “risks” to the country violated the U.S. Constitution.

  • April 06, 2026

    6th Circuit Affirms Preemption Under Garmon Doctrine In Multiemployer Fund Case

    CINCINNATI — Applying the preemption doctrine outlined in San Diego Building Trades Council v. Garmon to a dispute over multiemployer fund contributions that involves the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on April 3 affirmed all challenged decisions in favor of the funds — even though one panel member penned a concurring opinion to explain her view that Garmon preemption is on “shaky footing.”

  • April 06, 2026

    Illinois Judge Dismisses Pilot’s Claims Against Airline, Union Over Vaccine Mandate

    CHICAGO — An Illinois federal granted summary judgment for United Airlines and the Air Line Pilots Association, International (ALPA), ruling that a United pilot failed to present sufficient evidence for a reasonable jury to find in his favor on failure-to-accommodate and disparate treatment claims that arose from the airline’s COVID-19 vaccination policy.

  • April 06, 2026

    Federal Judge Refuses To Reconsider No Coverage Ruling In Suit Brought By Potbelly

    SEATTLE — A federal judge in Washington on April 3 refused to reconsider his ruling last month that granted an employment practices liability insurer’s motion to dismiss a breach of contract lawsuit brought by the owner and operator of several Potbelly Sandwich Shop restaurants, holding that the Washington Supreme Court’s recent ruling in Branson v. Washington Fine Wine & Spirits, LLC “does not materially affect” his finding that there is no coverage owed for an underlying putative class alleging the insured violated the Washington Equal Pay and Opportunities Act.

  • April 06, 2026

    High Court Seeks U.S. View On Certiorari Petition Concerning Top Hat Plans

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — In its April 6 orders list, the U.S. Supreme Court invited the U.S. solicitor general to brief the government’s views on a certiorari petition in which participants’ “top hat” deferred compensation and retirement plans challenge a Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling that they argue wrongly left them without relief from federal and state law.

  • April 02, 2026

    Ala. Federal Judge Upholds Most Of $3.6M Jury Award In Fired Motel Worker’s Suit

    ANNISTON, Ala. — In two orders and a memorandum opinion, a federal judge in Alabama partially granted a fired motel employee’s motion for attorney fees and costs and held that she is still entitled to the bulk of a jury’s more than $3.6 million award, minus a slight reduction in back pay, in compensatory and punitive damages for claims of retaliation, private intrusion and intentional infliction of emotional distress stemming from allegations of racial and sexual harassment by an executive at the company.

  • April 02, 2026

    Court: Pro Se Plaintiff Entitled To Protections, But Not Unfettered AI Use

    DENVER — Acknowledging the hard questions artificial intelligence raises in the legal field, a federal magistrate judge in Colorado said pro seplaintiffs enjoy the same privacy and work-product protections as lawyers under federal rules, but concluded that a protective order in the employment discrimination case before her must be amended to ensure confidential information does not end up in consumer AI models.

  • April 02, 2026

    Class Suit Alleges FBI Employees Were Fired For Perceived Political Affiliation

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Three former Federal Bureau of Investigation employees seek reinstatement in a putative class complaint filed in a federal court in the District of Columbia in which they allege they were wrongly fired because FBI Director Kashyap P. Patel and Attorney General Pamela J. Bondi “perceived them to be political opponents.”

  • April 01, 2026

    Employment Lawyers, Firms On Hook For Attorney Fees After Fake Citations, Quotes

    PHOENIX — Two attorneys and their law firms will be jointly liable for reasonable attorney fees incurred by Suns Legacy Partners LLC after the company sought sanctions for the plaintiffs’ inclusion of at least 16 fake citations and quotes in a woman’s employment case, a federal judge in Arizona said March 31 in partially denying a motion to dismiss.

  • April 01, 2026

    Summary Judgment Denied For Unions, Government On APA Claims In DOGE Access Suit

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in the District of Columbia on March 31 denied summary judgment to both sides — unions and nonprofits and federal government agencies — as to Administrative Procedure Act (APA) claims in a case over U.S. Digital Service and U.S. DOGE Service Temporary Organization (together, DOGE) personnel’s right to access U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) records, finding that “real disputes over facts foundational to plaintiffs’ APA claims . . . persist.”

  • April 01, 2026

    7th Circuit Receives Illinois High Court Ruling On Pre-Shift COVID-19 Screening

    CHICAGO — Having received a response from the Illinois Supreme Court in the negative as to whether the Illinois Minimum Wage Law (IMWL) incorporates the federal Portal-to-Portal Act (PPA) amendments to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) so as to exclude certain pre-shift activities, such as screening for COVID-19, from compensable time, the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals directed the parties to file statements about what action the court should take to complete the resolution of the appeal.

  • April 01, 2026

    Removed MSPB Member Seeks U.S. High Court Review Of ‘Adjudicatory Body’ Removals

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A case currently before the U.S. Supreme Court concerning a president’s power to remove at-will Federal Trade Commission members will not decide “whether Congress may enact a for-cause removal statute for a purely ‘adjudicatory body’ that does not make policy,” a member of the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) who is seeking review of her February 2025 removal by President Donald J. Trump argues in her U.S. Supreme Court petition for a writ of certiorari.

  • March 31, 2026

    DOL Seeks Comments On Proposed Revision To Foreign Worker Visa Program Wage Levels

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) is soliciting comments from the public on a proposed rule that would amend the methodology used to set prevailing wage levels for H-1B and Permanent Labor Certification (PERM) visa program workers and allow for pay increases in an effort to stop employers from hiring “alien workers at wage levels below those that similarly employed U.S. workers were paid,” which the DOL says has led to “adverse effects to the wages and working conditions of U.S. workers.”

  • March 31, 2026

    High Court Denies Debt Firm’s Petition In CFAA Suit Against Ex-Workers

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on March 30 denied a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by a national debt collection firm that sought review of whether the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals was correct in ruling that two former employees committed “workplace-policy infractions” and did not violate the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) when they shared a spreadsheet containing passwords for login information and that the passwords were not trade secrets under state or federal law.

  • March 31, 2026

    Hollywood Hotelier, Fired Worker Argue Arbitration Jurisdiction Case In High Court

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments on March 30 in a dispute between the owners and operators of a West Hollywood luxury hotel and an employee terminated during the COVID-19 pandemic over whether a federal court that had original jurisdiction over a case and stayed it for arbitration maintains jurisdiction to confirm or vacate the arbitration award under the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) without an independent jurisdictional basis.

  • March 30, 2026

    High Court To Review Affirmative Defense Filing Dispute In Termination Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on March 30 granted a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by a terminated employee of a Georgia district attorney’s office seeking review of whether the dismissal of her federal claims that she was terminated because of her pregnancy was proper when the affirmative defense her employer used as the basis of its summary judgment motion was not filed as part of its answer to her amended complaint in violation of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.