How many readers knew it was illegal to discriminate against white people . . . or guys?

The reason I ask is that we had a decision this week from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, which hears appeals from federal courts in the states of Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, and the Dakotas. A majority-African-American school board was found by a jury to have ...

I was all set to write this week about the EEOC's new Strategic Plan for 2012-16, but it was so darned vague, I'm not sure what I can meaningfully say about it. (In Roget's Thesaurus, or maybe it was The Devil's Dictionary, somebody said "strategic" was a synonym for "so indefinite that you can easily take the credit for achieving your goals, and no one will be the wiser if you failed. See also

Fellow blogger Jon Hyman, among others, has already written an eloquent critique of the latest report from the Office of the General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board on social media and protected concerted activity, and Dan Schwartz has a good roundup of what labor lawyers are saying about it (and also a call for employers not to overreact). If you haven't read Jon and Dan, you ...

A couple of interesting gems I got this week from other people (thanks, you guys!):

Pro hac vice statements defeat summary judgment! A federal judge in North Carolina denied summary judgment to a law firm who was sued by an associate for wrongful discharge based on race. Although the law firm's evidence showed that the associate was a poor performer, the judge found that statements made ...

Ah, February! The month of love! Of course, if you're a lawyer, you see the worst of humanity and never get to hear about true, faithful, honorable, self-sacrificial love -- sexual harassment is as close to "love" as we ever get. (See, you thought lawyers were just jerks - now you feel sorry for us!)

So, in honor of St. Valentine's Day, this is the best I can do. Here are two recent sexual ...

Colin O'Keefe of LXBN TV interviewed me yesterday about the NLRB's latest report on social media, and what it means for employers. Here it is, but you may want to turn the volume down before you start -- my volume was a lot louder than Colin's for some reason.

Colin, thank you for the interview and for your kind words about Employment & Labor Insider!

Last week, my post was about retaliation, and how employers can be liable and how they can defend themselves. As luck would have it, two recent court decisions illustrate beyond my wildest imagination how important this issue can be.

Five years between protected activity and adverse action? No problem! I said last week that most courts find that a six-month or more time lapse between the ...

Our friend Judy Greenwald from Business Insurance magazine reported this week that the number of EEOC charges filed in fiscal year 2011 (which ended September 30, 2011) was relatively flat, with the exception of one big category . . . retaliation.

Retaliation is essentially taking action against an employee because the employee engaged in some type of activity that is protected by law ...

It seems like such an insignificant little case, but it's really a can of exploding snakes.

An Illinois woman who was terminated after she was caught working during her lunch period has won her claim for unemployment. (The employer said that she was not terminated for working but for her behavior after she was confronted about the unauthorized work.)

Your gut reaction was probably the ...

The Chinese New Year is almost upon us. In honor of the Year of the Dragon, and in fond farewell to bilingual Jon Huntsman, who announced that he was withdrawing from the presidential race (hmm . . . speaking Mandarin in a Republican debate? . . . not sure that's a choice I'd have made), we have enough employment and HR blog posts to get you through the entire new year's season without repeating ...