UPDATE (April 1): Here's the latest challenge, filed today in federal court in Texas.

UPDATE (4:33 P.M. EDT, 3/31/16): A second challenge to the Persuader Rule has been filed today in federal court in Minnesota.

Like the first robin in spring, here is what we believe is the first lawsuit challenging the "Persuader Rule," issued last week by the U.S. Department of Labor. The suit was filed ...

UPDATE (April 1): Here's the latest challenge, filed today in federal court in Texas.

Mercy me! We now have a second challenge to the U.S. Department of Labor's Persuader Rule, filed today in federal court in Minnesota. This morning, I reported on a lawsuit filed yesterday in federal court in Arkansas. What will tomorrow bring?

The Minnesota lawsuit was filed by a network of labor ...

UPDATE (April 1): Here's the latest challenge, filed today in federal court in Texas.

UPDATE UPDATE (4:36 P.M. EDT, 3/31/16): Now a second lawsuit has been filed, in federal court in Minnesota.

UPDATE (Approx. 8 A.M. EDT, 3/31/16): Boom! Here is what we believe is the first lawsuit challenging the rule, filed yesterday in federal court in Arkansas. The plaintiffs include trade ...

Last year, Tommy Eden had a post about a gender identity lawsuit in which an employer in Georgia actually won summary judgment. A reader alerted me last night that a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit reversed the decision in part yesterday, finding that the Plaintiff's mixed-motive claim should go to a jury. According to the appeals court decision, there ...

Thanks so much to all of you who elected Employment & Labor Insider to the ABA Blawg 100 for another year. We appreciate you more than you know.

I would also like to thank my colleagues who contributed posts this year and helped get us where we are today: Cara Crotty, Tommy Eden, Ellen Kearns, Marcia McShane,  David Phippen, and David Smith.

Congratulations also to fellow employment blog ...

Bless their hearts.

Employers, it is a losing battle to debate theology with your employees who request religious accommodation. If you don't believe me, ask Consolidated Coal Company and its parent, CONSOL Energy, which have been ordered to pay more than half a million dollars to an employee who retired rather than have his hand scanned by a biometric screener, which he believed was ...

We have reached the fifth and final of our five harassment "must-haves": No retaliation.

It should be easy to avoid retaliation, right? Because retaliatory conduct is intentional - you can't "accidentally" retaliate against someone. You can't "negligently" seek payback.

To retaliate, you have to work at it.

Of course, that would make life way too simple. Employers can ...

NOTE: As I breathlessly reported last week, the EEOC has issued its long-awaited proposed rule on employer wellness programs and the Americans with Disabilities Act. (Here is a nicer copy than the one that was available then.) Brian Magargle, who knows a lot more than I do about the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and the Affordable Care Act, and I are ...

Last October, I posted about a consent decree entered into between Wal-Mart and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, in which Wal-Mart agreed to pay $72,500 to candidate for a store job in Maryland whose offer was withdrawn because she couldn’t undergo a urine test for drugs.

The candidate had end-stage renal disease.

Now, Kmart has been hit, too, in a case involving almost ...

From a labor and employment law standpoint, I'm not sure we have a lot to be thankful for this year. But 'tis the season, so here are a paltry few:

Be thankful that your employer doesn't fire you while you're on the air. Ben Finfer, co-host of a Chicago sports talk radio show learned that he was losing his job through a tweet that came through while he was on the air last week. Mr. Finfer ...