If you're a private sector employer, you can generally fire an at-will employee for his or her political beliefs or expression. The First Amendment, as we discussed last week, does not limit you. Depending on where you are, there may be state or local laws protecting employees from discrimination based on their political beliefs or activities, but those jurisdictions are the ...

The U.S. Senate yesterday confirmed Marvin Kaplan's appointment to the National Labor Relations Board, which means that there is now an equal number of Republicans and Democrats on the Board.

William Emanuel, a management-side attorney from Littler Mendelsohn, is the last Trump nominee to the Board. His confirmation vote will not take place until after the Senate's August ...

President Trump has nominated Daniel M. Gade to the last vacant slot on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Dr. Gade, who has a Master's and Ph.D. in Public Administration and Public Policy, is a veteran of the second Iraq War, and lost his right leg in 2005 after an explosion that occurred while he was carrying out a routine patrol.

After spending about a year in recovery, Dr ...

As anyone who's been following the news is aware, President Trump has been publicly and repeatedly indicating his displeasure with Attorney General Jeff Sessions. We are a non-partisan blog, so I'm not going to get into who's right and who's wrong about the underlying dispute. But it does seem to me that the President is trying to ...

Marvin Kaplan and William Emanuel, President Trump's nominees to fill the two vacant seats on the National Labor Relations Board, cleared another hurdle Wednesday by making it out of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. The HELP Committee vote was split along party lines. No date has been set for the full Senate vote, but both Mr. Kaplan and Mr. Emanuel are ...

Not every obnoxious workplace behavior is unlawful harassment. To violate federal law, the harassment has to be unwelcome, based on a "protected category" (for example, sex or race), and "severe or pervasive."

But most employers aren't satisfied with banning only "illegal" behavior, and rightfully not. The law does a fairly good job of keeping us from each ...

Janet Dhillon, general counsel and corporate secretary for Burlington Stores, Inc., has been nominated by President Trump to fill a vacant seat on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and to become its Chair. If confirmed, Ms. Dhillon will serve a five-year term that will expire July 1, 2022.

I was expecting him to nominate Victoria Lipnic, the current acting chair. Ms ...

NLRB candidates being vetted. Bloomberg BNA reported last night that President Trump has settled on two candidates to fill the two vacant seats on the National Labor Relations Board. One is William Emanuel, a shareholder in the Los Angeles Office of the management-side law firm Littler Mendelsohn. Here is a link to his firm bio. The other is Marvin Kaplan, counsel to a Commissioner ...

It was a bleak and frigid night on I-88 somewhere in northern Illinois. The icy wind whipped across the flatlands, grazing the endless rows of white, brittle remains of last year's corn crop. The only place to be that night was in your house, wrapped in your Snuggie, with a warm glass of brandy, watching videos of past vacations at Daytona Beach.

Alphonse Maddin knew he had to ...

The U.S. Senate has passed, 49-48, a resolution of disapproval of the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces rule. The resolution of disapproval passed the House in February, and we've reported on it here and here.

If the President signs the resolution, as is expected, then Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces will be dead.

The controversial rule, issued by the Obama Administration in August 2016 ...