Bloomberg BNA reports this afternoon that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed two transgender discrimination lawsuits yesterday, the agency's first ever against private-sector employers. One is against a Michigan funeral home, and the other is against a medical clinic in Lakeland, Florida. Both cases appear to involve straightforward discrimination ...

You be the judge of these real-life employment disputes! (I've changed the names to make it harder for you to Google the answers right away, but the answers with links are at the end of the post.)

1. Susan and her husband, who are white, are cleaning out their attic one weekend. They come across some quaint old clothes and sepia-tinted pictures, and among the treasures Susan finds an old ...

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has been on a tear this week, suing employers right and left, and getting some "wins" including a couple of big settlements . . .

Train-wreck boss. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas) vacated a summary judgment decision for a Tex-Mex restaurant franchisor that had been sued by the EEOC because ...

UPDATE (1/15/16): The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit reversed this decision yesterday, finding that Ms. Chavez's "mixed-motive" claim can go to a jury. Here is a copy of the Eleventh Circuit decision. Thanks very much to Ms. Chavez's attorney, Jillian Weiss, who alerted us.

A recent decision from a federal court in Georgia provides an excellent illustration about how ...

As NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell can tell you, it isn't easy for an employer to handle off-duty domestic violence situations.

Sometimes your employee is the victim. If so, you may have someone who is distracted, scared, upset, or frequently absent because of physical injury or psychological trauma, or court appearances. She (or he - men can be victims, too) might be spending too much ...

We will never forget you.

This drug-testing case would make a great law school final exam.

Shawn Olson of Minnesota was offered a job in West Virginia by Push, Inc., a company based in Wisconsin. Mr. Olson was asked to complete a pre-hire drug test, which was originally going to be performed in Push’s state of Wisconsin. However, for Mr. Olson’s convenience, the company allowed Mr. Olson to be tested in ...

Do you think you have that employee termination all buttoned up, and no one will be able to challenge you? Defending that EEOC charge will be a slam dunk? No plaintiff's lawyer in his right mind would represent your soon-to-be-ex employee?

Are you sure about that? Can we talk?

Don't commit these five firing faux pas*.**

*This is not an all-inclusive list. There are probably more than five.

Law 360 reports this morning that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has agreed to rehear the EEOC v. Ford Motor Co. case, which I reported on (and disagreed with) in April. The original decision, holding that Ford should have allowed an employee with severe and unpredictable irritable bowel syndrome to telecommute as a reasonable accommodation under the Americans with ...

Last spring, I was in the Detroit area for a deposition. I'm originally from that area, so I stayed over the weekend to visit family, and we made a trip to the Detroit Institute of Arts. In honor of Labor Day, here are some photos I took of Diego Rivera's Detroit Industry murals. If you've never seen these in person, you really should - the scale and detail is much more than I can capture.

The ...