The Trump administration has disclaimed disparate impact — a theory of liability that is often at the heart of bias claims arising from reductions-in-force — but employers still face legal jeopardy if reductions-in-force have an outsized impact on protected groups, attorneys say.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is investigating whether Napa Auto Parts discriminated against Black job applicants, according to a Texas federal court filing Thursday that accused the company of failing to comply with the agency's demands for information.
The Ninth Circuit zeroed in on timing Wednesday as a former Netflix worker pushed to keep her sexual harassment suit out of arbitration, appearing sympathetic to the streaming company's argument that her dispute began before a law banning mandatory arbitration for sexual harassment claims became effective.
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The Trump administration has disclaimed disparate impact — a theory of liability that is often at the heart of bias claims arising from reductions-in-force — but employers still face legal jeopardy if reductions-in-force have an outsized impact on protected groups, attorneys say.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is investigating whether Napa Auto Parts discriminated against Black job applicants, according to a Texas federal court filing Thursday that accused the company of failing to comply with the agency's demands for information.
The Ninth Circuit zeroed in on timing Wednesday as a former Netflix worker pushed to keep her sexual harassment suit out of arbitration, appearing sympathetic to the streaming company's argument that her dispute began before a law banning mandatory arbitration for sexual harassment claims became effective.
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February 06, 2026
A New York federal judge tossed Friday a white former Verizon worker's suit claiming he was discriminated against after he was fired for saying a racial slur on a lunch break, ruling his remaining claims are best left for a state court to resolve.
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February 06, 2026
The Fourth Circuit on Friday lifted a block on President Donald Trump's executive orders that terminated federal diversity, equity and inclusion programs and aimed to encourage government contractors to do the same, saying it's not the court's role to determine if the directives are "sound policy."
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February 06, 2026
The commission responsible for Connecticut's public defenders did not violate TaShun Bowden-Lewis' constitutional or legal rights when it removed her as chief of the office in 2024, a state Superior Court judge has ruled, finding no second hearing was necessary before the former top defense lawyer lost her job.
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February 06, 2026
This week, a New York federal magistrate judge will consider granting preliminary approval to a $6 million class action settlement resolving allegations from home health aides who claimed a provider did not pay them for all hours they worked during live-in shifts.
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February 06, 2026
Billing company Paymentus Corp. has settled a former in-house attorney's retaliation, age discrimination and wrongful discharge lawsuit less than two weeks before the case was set to go to trial, court records show.
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February 06, 2026
A split Eleventh Circuit panel on Friday reinstated a Black truck salesman's harassment suit claiming a supervisor called him "boy" and that his colleagues regularly called nonwhite customers racial slurs, ruling his hostile work environment claims were strong enough to keep his suit alive.
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February 06, 2026
In the coming week, attorneys should watch for Ninth Circuit oral arguments in a discrimination case against a utility district. Here's a look at that case and other labor and employment matters on deck in California.
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February 05, 2026
A California federal judge appeared open Thursday to tossing a proposed class action alleging Tesla discriminates against American workers by favoring allegedly underpaid H-1B visa holders, telling counsel repeatedly during a hearing the allegations seem to be "speculation."
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February 05, 2026
Patients of Children's Hospital Colorado who want a state court to reinstate their gender-affirming medical care told a judge Thursday that the court's enforcement of state law and the rule of law is their only remedy, while the hospital that halted their care has other options.
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February 05, 2026
A prominent civil rights attorney representing a University of Texas at Austin nurse in an employment discrimination case must explain why he shouldn't be sanctioned "for his apparent misuse of artificial intelligence" to research and write a brief, a Texas federal judge ruled.
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February 05, 2026
Two nonprofit public interest law firms are pressing the U.S. Supreme Court to review a Second Circuit opinion finding the National Football League's arbitration process unenforceable, saying the opinion encourages judges to issue "subjective and arbitrary" decisions on arbitration clauses.
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February 05, 2026
A New Jersey appellate panel has backed the New Jersey Department of Treasury's win in a disability discrimination suit by one of its employees, ruling her claims are either time barred or lack the necessary evidence to show severe enough conduct by the department.
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February 05, 2026
The public has until March 2 to comment on recently proposed amendments to New York City's sick leave law, changes that will expand employees' rights to take paid time off for reasons that go beyond illnesses.
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February 05, 2026
The Sixth Circuit backed a trial court's ruling that an arbitration agreement didn't apply to a Black ex-security officer's suit claiming Detroit's Renaissance Center failed to address concerns that white officers mistreated their Black co-workers, ruling a grammatical decision in the pact keeps his case in court.
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February 05, 2026
A California-based harvesting company and related entities will pay over $6.1 million for failing to tell farmworkers about their paid sick leave options and stiffing them on their full wages, the California Labor Commissioner's Office has said.
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February 04, 2026
Ohio State University was sued Tuesday in federal court by a former football program employee alleging it applied "gendered assumptions about credibility, aggression and victimhood" against him and fired him after he complained about a female colleague's hostile behavior.
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February 04, 2026
The families of patients of Children's Hospital Colorado who allege it is discriminating against their children through its suspension of gender-affirming medical care for youth patients told a Colorado state court Wednesday the stoppage has significantly harmed their children.
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February 04, 2026
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued Nike in Missouri federal court Wednesday, claiming the sports apparel giant hasn't complied with demands for information in a probe assessing whether Nike discriminated against white workers through diversity, equity and inclusion policies.
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February 04, 2026
Gretchen Carlson, a former Fox News anchor and a leading advocate for ending forced arbitration of sexual harassment and assault in the workplace, has come out against a federal judicial nominee for Louisiana for her past comments on the issue.
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February 04, 2026
The Fourth Circuit declined Wednesday to reinstate a suit from a worker who said a chicken processor unlawfully terminated him after a shooting left him with lingering medical issues, saying he failed to show he could perform the key functions of his job.
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February 04, 2026
A Third Circuit panel on Wednesday quizzed attorneys in a case involving a Kutztown University professor who was denied remote teaching accommodations about if she should have expected in-person instruction to be an essential function of her position, despite the lack of a job description or written policy saying so.
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February 04, 2026
United Airlines has urged an Illinois federal judge to hand it a pretrial win over a pilot's accusation that the airline failed to properly handle his religious-based COVID-19 vaccination exemption request, arguing he received an accommodation that should be considered reasonable and defeat his claims.
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February 04, 2026
Allegations that an ex-DLA Piper partner raped a former Boston-based associate in Delaware in 2022 should be tossed since the Massachusetts state court the case was filed in has no jurisdiction over the Delaware claim, according to the accused former partner.
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February 04, 2026
A federal judge has dismissed most of a former Boston City Hall staffer's employment lawsuit, including claims accusing Mayor Michelle Wu of firing her to protect a cabinet official from sexual harassment allegations.
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February 04, 2026
The California Civil Rights Department has opened its portal for employers with 100 or more employees to report pay data from 2025, the agency announced.