Calif. Justices Rule Prop 22 Is Constitutional

By Max Kutner

The California Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the Proposition 22 statewide ballot measure from 2020 that exempts certain app-based drivers from the state's independent contractor classification law, a ruling that could have widespread consequences for the gig economy and driver litigation.

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6th Circ. Asks Union If Steel Co. Must Pay 'Double' Benefits

By Carolyn Muyskens

During oral arguments Thursday in a "messy, complex" union fringe benefits dispute, a Sixth Circuit panel questioned whether ruling for a union pension fund would require a steel contractor to pay benefits twice for out-of-state workers. 

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Google Bias Case Tossed After Reported Settlement

By Elliot Weld

A Manhattan federal judge dismissed a suit brought by a former Google executive who claimed he was fired after alleging that a female colleague sexually harassed him, citing a reported settlement with the company.

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Radiologist Leans On Muldrow At 1st Circ. Bias Arguments

By Amanda Ottaway

 A newly minted First Circuit judge dove enthusiastically into his first oral argument session Thursday, lobbing questions at a Boston medical center and a radiologist who said her discrimination and whistleblower case should be revived in part because of an April U.S. Supreme Court decision.

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Wash. High Court Tosses Nurse's Religious Bias Lawsuit

By Emily Brill

A state-run residential care facility was allowed to fire a nurse who kept requesting religious leave after the facility had already given her nine days off to practice nondenominational Christianity — seven more religious days than its union contract required, Washington state's high court ruled Thursday.

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NJ Justices Uphold Yeshiva's Win In Defamation Suit

By Carla Baranauckas

The New Jersey Supreme Court has upheld a ruling that the ministerial exception insulating religious employers from workplace tort claims protects an Orthodox Jewish school from a fired teacher's defamation claim over a letter sent to the community following an inquiry into allegations that he had interacted inappropriately with students.

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Rising Star: Jones Day's Kristina Yost

By Patrick Hoff

Kristina Yost of Jones Day has acted as lead counsel for Bloomberg LP in several high-profile Fair Labor Standards Act suits, helped a manufacturing company defeat a suit claiming it failed to pay overtime and worked to resolve an age discrimination case against IBM, earning her a spot among the employment law practitioners under age 40 honored by Law360 as Rising Stars.

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Disney Can't Sink Fired 'Star Wars' Actor's Political Bias Suit

By Patrick Hoff

Disney and Lucasfilm must face a former "Star Wars" actor's lawsuit claiming she was unlawfully fired for sharing political views on social media, a California federal judge ruled, saying the companies hadn't shown that her statements impeded their artistic expression.

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GOP States Win Reprieve From Title IX Gender Identity Rule

By Patrick Hoff

The U.S. Department of Education can't enforce its new interpretation of Title IX expanding LGBTQ+ rights against six states challenging the regulations, a Missouri federal judge ruled, saying the federal agency's interpretation of the statute isn't owed any deference under recent U.S. Supreme Court precedent.

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Ex-Defender Says Judiciary Reform Study Buoys Bias Suit

By Hayley Fowler

A former public defender who accused the federal judiciary of flubbing its investigation of her sexual harassment claim has doubled down on her request for the court to take notice of a recent study promoting judiciary workplace reforms, hitting back at her opponent's attempt to discredit the report's relevance.

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Ninth Circ. Vacates, Remands BIA Sexual Misconduct Dispute

By Crystal Owens

The Ninth Circuit vacated and remanded a lower court's ruling that the Bureau of Indian Affairs isn't liable for the actions of one of its officers who sexually assaulted a Northern Cheyenne woman, saying conflicting statements create a factual dispute regarding whether the officer was acting within the scope of his employment.

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Foley Hoag Hit With Overtime Wage Suit By NY Support Tech

By Andrea Keckley

A former support technician at Foley Hoag LLP accused the firm of "egregious violations of wage and hour laws" in a lawsuit filed Wednesday in New York federal court.

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Patent Atty Seeks Closure Over Ex-Firm's Back Wages

By James Boyle

Discovery in a patent attorney's suit against his former firm, Pittsburgh-based Keevican Weiss & Bauerle LLC, has produced enough evidence to support summary judgment on some of his claims, according to a new motion filed this week in Allegheny County.

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Texas Judge Again Orders Transfer Of SpaceX NLRB Suit

By Tim Ryan

A Texas federal judge again denied SpaceX's request that he reconsider an earlier decision transferring to California the company's challenge to the constitutionality of the National Labor Relations Board, reaffirming a May decision holding the company did not provide good reason to rethink the transfer.

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Fla. Agency Gets Most Of Unions' Claims Over Dues Law Axed

By Beverly Banks

A public employee relations agency secured an early win against claims from Florida teachers unions that provisions in a state law pertaining to dues deductions and recertification violated the U.S. Constitution, a federal judge ruled, sending only one contracts clause allegation to trial.

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US Calls For Labor Scrutiny At Mexican Components Plant

By Jennifer Doherty

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative announced a new request Thursday calling on Mexican authorities to investigate claims that workers at a components manufacturing plant were fired for protected activities and blocked from joining outside unions.

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USDA Drops Push To Certify Contractors' Labor Compliance

By Irene Spezzamonte

The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Thursday scrapped from a proposed rule requirements for federal contractors to attest that they were following federal and state labor laws, tossing President Barack Obama's efforts an earlier version of the rule revamped.

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Ex-Pharma Exec's Counsel Accused Of Reading Stolen Emails

By Ryan Boysen

A New Jersey pharmaceutical startup wants to disqualify the "tainted" attorneys of a former executive who was allegedly caught spying on the CEO, claiming the attorneys should have immediately shielded their eyes when they realized their client was using stolen, privileged emails to carry out an "attempted shakedown."

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Warren Slams Fed Chief For Inaction On Bank Exec Pay

By Kellie Mejdrich

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., urged the Federal Reserve's top official to support rulemaking that would restrict incentive-based pay for executives at big banks, a long-overdue policy change that Congress required in the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act.

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Loeb & Loeb Says Ex-GC's Sanctions Motion Is Bogus

By Daniel Ducassi

Loeb & Loeb LLP urged a Colorado federal judge Wednesday to reject a former general counsel's allegations that it deliberately sent a thumb drive of documents that aren't text searchable, saying they are actually searchable and would have otherwise sent over 64,000 physical pages that weren't.

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BREAKING: Ex-McElroy Deutsch CFO Gets 5 Years For Theft

By Carla Baranauckas

McElroy Deutsch Mulvaney & Carpenter LLP's former chief financial officer was sentenced Friday in a New Jersey state court to five years in prison and ordered to pay restitution for embezzling more than $1.5 million from the firm and failing to pay income tax.

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Analysis

How Barrett Became The High Court's Justice To Watch

By Katie Buehler

Justice Amy Coney Barrett has revealed a unique trifecta of caution toward overly broad opinions, devotion to the factual record and concern for the practical effects of court rulings that separates her from the other right-leaning justices and contains the potential to broker more moderate rulings in future terms.

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UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London

By Max Austin

This past week in London has seen U.K. band The 1975 face action by Future Sound Asia after its performance in Malaysia resulted in a festival's cancelation, Spectrum Insurance hit by The Motoring Organization following their dispute over information misuse, and a former police constable pursue defamation against a colleague for allegedly instigating a campaign of harassment against her. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

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Roundup

After Chevron

In the month since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the Chevron deference standard, this Expert Analysis series has featured attorneys discussing the potential impact across 26 different rulemaking and litigation areas.

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