The Americans with Disabilities Act’s definition of “disability” expressly excludes “gender identity disorders not resulting from physical impairments.” Based on this exclusion, courts historically have held that an employee is not entitled to the protections of the ADA based on status as a transgender person. Recently, in Williams v. Kincaid, the U.S. Court of Appeals …read more »
Efforts to Outlaw Race-Based Hair Discrimination Gain Traction: What Employers Need to Know about the CROWN Act
In 2010, Catastrophe Management Solutions hired Chastity Jones. Jones, a black woman, was fired after she refused to cut her dreadlocks to comply with CMS’s employee grooming standards. The EEOC sued, arguing that Jones’s dismissal amounted to race discrimination. But the courts disagreed, finding Jones’s dreadlocks were not a fixed (i.e., immutable) trait constituting “race” …read more »
Supreme Court Cautions Employers Not to Delay Asserting Failure to Exhaust Administrative Remedies Defense in Title VII Cases
Most federal laws prohibiting discrimination and retaliation, such as Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (“Title VII”), require plaintiffs to first file an administrative charge alleging discrimination or retaliation with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) or the state-agency equivalent before they may file a lawsuit alleging such discrimination or retaliation. If …read more »
A Primer on Legal Protections for LGBT Employees: Past, Present, and Future (Part 1)
Earlier this year, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to consider a trio of cases presenting the question of whether Title VII’s protections are broad enough to forbid discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. The cases will be argued in the fall, with decisions likely issued by June 2020. Until then, employers …read more »
What Employers Need to Know about Hair Discrimination
Most employers maintain dress codes and grooming policies. And most of these policies dictate that employees must wear “professional” or “business-appropriate” hairstyles. Some go a step further, prohibiting “extreme” or “distracting” coiffures. Such policies, so long as enforced in an even-handed way, have not traditionally been viewed as presenting significant legal risk. But over the …read more »
What’s Expected of You When Your Employee is Expecting
The EEOC has ramped up enforcement against pregnancy discrimination, filing four lawsuits in March 2018 alone. These types of lawsuits can result in expensive consent decrees that also obligate the employer to policy changes and EEOC monitoring. Making sure that policies and practices mirror what the EEOC and courts expect of employers when it comes …read more »