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Mealey's Employment

  • March 07, 2025

    Employees Fired For Vaccine Refusal Cannot Sue Employer For Civil Rights Violation

    EUGENE, Ore. — Determining that a hospital was not a state actor in terminating employees who refused the COVID-19 vaccine pursuant to the hospital’s state-law-compliant vaccination mandate and that there is no private right of action in the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) Act, an Oregon federal court granted a motion to dismiss of the hospital and its chief executive and chief medical officers in the employees’ lawsuit alleging civil rights violations, statutory violations and state law claims stemming from their termination.

  • March 07, 2025

    Financial Advisers’ Stay, Intervention Bids Fail In Compensation Row

    CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Former Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc. financial advisers who said they are unwilling members of a putative class in a compensation dispute were denied permission to intervene after both sides opposed their motion, with the docket showing that a North Carolina federal judge issued an oral order.

  • March 07, 2025

    NLRB Member Reinstated By Federal Judge; Trump, NLRB Chair Appeal

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald J. Trump and Marvin Kaplan, the chairman of the National Labor Relations Board, filed a notice of appeal in a federal court in the District of Columbia on March 6 after a judge in that court ruled the same day that the “[p]resident is not a king” and “does not have the authority to terminate members of the National Labor Relations Board at will.”

  • March 07, 2025

    Groups File Suit Accusing Elon Musk, DOGE Of Illegal AI-Based Employment Moves

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A quartet of advocacy groups sued Elon Musk, U.S. DOGE Service and others in District of Columbia federal court, accusing them of using artificial intelligence to make decisions about federal employment and government contracts despite the complete lack of statutory or other authority to do so.

  • March 06, 2025

    U.S. High Court Denies As Moot Government’s Application In Special Counsel’s Suit

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on March 6 denied as moot an application by the federal government to vacate a trial court order that President Donald J. Trump does not have the authority to remove Special Counsel Hampton Dellinger without cause; the high court denial was filed one day after the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals granted the government’s emergency motion in the case for a stay pending appeal.

  • March 06, 2025

    5th Circuit Dismisses SpaceX’s Appeal In Suit Challenging NLRB Structure

    NEW ORLEANS — An interlocutory appeal by Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) in a lawsuit in which it challenges the constitutionality of the National Labor Relations Board’s structure was dismissed March 5 by a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel that found that it lacked jurisdiction; the opinion was filed two days after the NLRB filed a notice in the appeal stating that it “is modifying its position with respect to the constitutionality of removal restrictions for NLRB administrative law judges (ALJs) and Board members.”

  • March 06, 2025

    D.C. Circuit Grants Stay Pending Appeal In Special Counsel’s Removal Suit

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on March 5 granted an emergency motion for a stay pending appeal sought by the federal government after a trial court found that President Donald J. Trump does not have the authority to remove Special Counsel Hampton Dellinger without cause; the order was issued one day after the trial court denied a stay.

  • March 06, 2025

    Stay Of Summary Judgment For Ousted MSPB Chair Denied As Government Appeals

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in the District of Columbia on March 5 denied a motion by the federal government to stay a ruling finding that President Donald J. Trump unlawfully attempted to remove the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) chair from her position and ordering that she be returned to her post; the order came one day after a flurry of filings that included the summary judgment ruling, the stay motion and the government’s notice of appeal.

  • March 05, 2025

    Government Seeks Stay, Appeals After Ousted MSPB Chair Granted Summary Judgment

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The federal government on March 4 filed a notice of appeal and a motion to stay pending appeal in a federal court in the District of Columbia on the same day that a federal judge in that court granted summary judgment to the ousted chair of the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), ordered that she be returned to the MSPB until her term expires unless cause existed and enjoined the government from removing her from office without cause.

  • March 05, 2025

    Employee Objection To COVID-19 Vaccine Was Medical, Not Religious, Judge Concludes

    CHICAGO — Deeming an employee’s objections to the COVID-19 vaccine medical rather than religious, an Illinois federal judge granted her employer’s motion for summary judgment and dismissed the employee’s lawsuit alleging that she was denied a religious accommodation for the employer’s mandatory vaccination policy in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.

  • March 05, 2025

    10th Circuit Panel Denies Rehearing In Employee’s COVID-19 Vaccine Refusal Case

    DENVER — A panel of the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has denied a petition for rehearing and for rehearing en banc filed by a former nursing center employee seeking review of a panel judgment affirming the dismissal of her First Amendment free exercise claim stemming from her termination for refusing to be vaccinated for COVID-19 as mandated by a state health board emergency rule.

  • March 05, 2025

    Accommodation Of Religious Objection To Vaccine That Violates Law An Undue Burden

    NEW YORK — Ruling that an accommodation to an employee’s religious objection to COVID vaccination and testing that would violate a state law is an undue burden on an employer, a panel of the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a judgment of a New York federal court granting summary judgment in favor of a school district in an employee’s lawsuit alleging that the district violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act by refusing her such an accommodation and violated the Genetic Information Discrimination Act (GINA) in asking questions about her family medical history.

  • March 04, 2025

    Federal Government Denied Stay After Ruling For Special Counsel In Removal Suit

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The federal government filed in the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on March 3 an emergency motion to stay pending appeal a District Court order finding that President Donald J. Trump does not have the authority to remove Special Counsel Hampton Dellinger without cause; the emergency motion was filed the same day a federal judge in the District of Columbia denied the government’s motion in that court for a stay pending appeal.

  • March 04, 2025

    8th Circuit Affirms Rulings For Former Exec In ERISA ‘Top Hat’ Plan Case

    ST. LOUIS — Saying that “[c]ontracts may refer to something that is non-existent without posing an interpretive problem,” an Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a judgment ordering payment of nearly $5 million in deferred compensation benefits and $19,177.50 in attorney fees plus interest in a dispute over a “top hat” plan.

  • March 04, 2025

    U.S. High Court Denies Petition In Police Officer’s Social Media, Suspension Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on March 3 denied a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by a police officer who raised tolling and grievance questions after a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled that the officer, in alleging that his suspension over Facebook posts constituted First Amendment violations under 42 U.S. Code Section 1983, failed to show that the clock on his claims was stalled while he challenged his suspension or that the applicable one-year prescriptive period was interrupted by two state court petitions.

  • March 04, 2025

    Former Detainee Opposes Md. County’s High Court Petition In Wage Class, Collective

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A petition for a writ of certiorari by a Maryland county seeking a ruling on “[w]hether inmates working in furtherance of public works projects for the government charged with their custody and care” are employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) should be denied as there is no split of authority and the case is a poor vehicle, a former detainee argues in his March 3 response that was requested by the U.S. Supreme Court.

  • March 04, 2025

    Panel: Coverage Barred For $3M Judgment Over Unpaid Wages, Commissions Claims

    NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held that a breach of contract exclusion barred employment practices liability and directors and officers liability coverage for a more than $3 million underlying state court judgment in favor of former employees who sued the insured for breach of contract for unpaid wages and commissions, affirming a lower court’s ruling in favor of the insurer in its declaratory judgment lawsuit.

  • March 04, 2025

    Women In Trades Nonprofit Alleges Harm From President’s DEI Executive Order

    CHICAGO — President Donald J. Trump’s Jan. 20 and 21 executive orders (EOs) declaring programs that promote diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) “‘illegal and immoral discrimination’” “trample” free speech and due process rights and impose overly broad restrictions, alleges Chicago Women in Trades (CWIT), a nonprofit that prepares women to enter and remain in high-wage skilled trades, in a complaint filed in an Illinois federal court.

  • March 04, 2025

    Union, Groups Sue To Stop DOGE, Others From Accessing Social Security Systems

    BALTIMORE — The Social Security Administration (SSA) “has access to some of the nation’s most sensitive data” of Americans, and U.S. DOGE Service and Elon Musk should not have unfettered access, a union, an advocacy group and a labor organization allege in a complaint filed in federal court in Maryland.

  • March 03, 2025

    Federal Government Seeks Stay After Ruling For Special Counsel In Removal Suit

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The federal government filed an opposed motion to stay an order and a notice of appeal on March 1, both in response to an opinion issued that same day by a federal judge in the District of Columbia who ruled that President Donald J. Trump does not have the authority to remove Special Counsel Hampton Dellinger without cause.

  • February 28, 2025

    Preliminary Injunction Denied In National Security Workers’ DEIA Positions Suit

    ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A federal judge in Virginia on Feb. 27 vacated an administrative stay and denied a motion for a temporary restraining order (TRO), which the judge treated as a motion for a preliminary injunction, filed in a case by national security workers who allege that they were wrongly forced to choose resignation or termination because they were in temporary assignments related to diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA).

  • February 28, 2025

    Illinois Judge Dismisses Bulk Of Pilot’s Claims Against Union Over Vaccine Mandate

    CHICAGO — A federal judge in Illinois dismissed most of the claims a United Airlines pilot filed against his union alleging religious discrimination, retaliation and breach of the duty of fair representation in relation to the union’s representation regarding the airline’s COVID-19 vaccination requirement but allowed the pilot to continue pursuing a claim alleging disparate treatment between those who received religious and medical exemptions from the mandate.

  • February 28, 2025

    Home Health Agency Seeks Rehearing After 3rd Circuit Affirms It Violated FLSA

    PHILADELPHIA — Calling the case against it “the epitome of federal agency overreach,” a home health care agency and its president seek rehearing en banc of a Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruling affirming a grant of summary judgment to the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) on its claims that the agency willfully violated the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) by, among other things, failing to compensate its employees for the time they spent traveling between clients’ homes.

  • February 28, 2025

    3rd Circuit Panel Upholds Dismissal Of Vaccine Refusal Case For Discovery Defiance

    PHILADELPHIA — A panel of the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has affirmed the dismissal with prejudice — as a sanction for refusing to cooperate with discovery requests and comply with discovery orders — by a Pennsylvania federal court of a former employee’s lawsuit alleging that her employer failed to accommodate her religious objection to being vaccinated for COVID-19 in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.

  • February 27, 2025

    Federal Judge Extends TRO In Special Counsel’s Suit Challenging Removal

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in the District of Columbia on Feb. 26 issued an order extending through March 1 a temporary restraining order (TRO) preventing the removal of Hampton Dellinger from his position as special counsel “so that the status quo will be preserved for the brief period of time it takes to complete the written opinion on the consolidated motion for preliminary injunction and cross motions for summary judgment.”