As I've previously reported, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has filed two lawsuits alleging that employers discriminated against employees based on sexual orientation, which the Commission says is prohibited by Title VII.

One of the lawsuits, filed against Pallet Companies/IFCO Systems, settled this week for $202,200. The former employee will receive $182,200 ...

Well, maybe not light reading, but good reading about good news that you won't want to miss! Here are our bulletins and other publications from the last week, in case you missed them:

*Heather Owen is already shooting off Fourth of July fireworks at the FOCUS women's leadership blog because our firm was named this week by the National Law Journal as the fourth best law firm in the ...

These will be really quick takes, since there are so many of them, on the proposed Enforcement Guidance on National Origin Discrimination issued this week by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. (The actual document is 57 pages long, not counting the table of contents.)

I'll try to focus on the less obvious/more interesting points.

Take No. 1: "National ...

Law360 reported this morning that the State of North Carolina has filed suit against the U.S. Department of Justice in federal court in Raleigh. The suit seeks a declaratory judgment (official ruling from the court) that, by enforcing HB 2's provisions regarding "bathroom use and changing facility use by state employees," the state is not in violation of Title VII of the Civil ...

A federal appeals court panel has come out with a decision interpreting the U.S. Supreme Court's decision last year in Young v. UPS, and the result wasn't too good for the employer.

The Sheriff's Department of Ulster County, New York, provided light duty for employees with work-related injuries but didn't provide it for anyone else. Plaintiff Ann Marie Legg, a corrections officer at the ...

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a "friend of the court" brief in a sexual orientation discrimination appeal, arguing that sexual orientation discrimination is "sex discrimination" prohibited by Title VII. (Thanks to EEOC General Counsel David Lopez for alerting me.)

I am a skeptic on this subject. Title VII was enacted in 1964, and legend has it that sex ...

Boy, the Detroit area seems to be in the front lines for the gender-identity wars.

As I've previously reported here, here, here, and here, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has a high-profile gender-stereotyping lawsuit going on against an area funeral home chain based on its discharge of a transgender employee. The funeral home is represented by the Alliance Defending ...

This is my "Labor Day" post. (hehe)

Yahoo's CEO Marissa Mayer announced this week that she is expecting twin girls, and Yahoo's stock reportedly took an immediate dive. (H8rs!) Mayer said that she plans to take only two weeks off, and she can probably manage that because she has a nice nursery right off her CEO office. (You may recall that she had it built at the same time that she outlawed ...

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 ...

If you try to prevent or end workplace discrimination as part of your job, is it legal for your employer retaliate against you?

Inquiring HR professionals, in-house lawyers, and counselors want to know!

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Fourth Circuit says no - Title VII's anti-retaliation protections apply to you, too.

In a very significant decision that all employers should ...