A federal judge of the Southern District of New York held that President Trump violated the First Amendment by “blocking” individuals from his @realDonaldTrump twitter account in response to the political views expressed by those individuals. The lawsuit was brought by several twitter users who were blocked from viewing or replying to the President’s tweets [...]
On February 21, 2018 Mosby-Meachem v. Memphis Light, Gas & Water Division, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit held that working from home was a reasonable accommodation for a pregnant attorney. The attorney, who was an in-house attorney for Memphis Light, Gas, & Water, was denied her request to work from home [...]
On June 22, 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Carpenter v. U.S. that a warrant is needed to access cell-tower records. In a 5-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the Government conducts a “search” for purposes of the Fourth Amendment when it accesses an individual’s historical cell-site location information (“CLSI”) which provides [...]
In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court overruled past precedent and held that public-sector unions cannot require non-member employees to pay “agency fees” (fair share fees) which cover the costs of collective bargaining. The Petitioner, Mark Janus, is an employee of the state of Illinois whose unit is represented by American Federation of State, County, [...]
In a 7-2 decision, the United States Supreme Court held in favor of a Colorado baker who refused to make a cake for a same-sex couple because of his religious beliefs. The Court found that the Colorado Civil Rights Commission violated the Baker’s First Amendment free-exercise rights by failing to maintain “religious neutrality.” In July [...]
According to the US Department of Health and Human Services, over 11 million Americans misused prescription opioids in 2016. Of those 11 million, an estimated 2.1 million are considered as having an opioid use disorder. As the opioid epidemic continues to be an issue for the country at large, employers will face new challenges in [...]
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services recently launched a new website, https://www.e-verify.gov/. This site provides employers the ability to verify the employment eligibility of applicants/employees instantly, or at worst within 24 hours. The system compares information from an employee’s I-9 Form to records available to the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration [...]
FHKAD attorney Edward S. Kim recently secured a positive arbitration verdict for a City Police Department. The issue in front of the arbitrator concerned whether the City had just cause to discipline an employee for unsatisfactory performance and insubordination. Since 2014, the City had required its day shift supervisors to submit a daily shift report [...]
On March 7, 2018, the United States Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals held that discriminating against an employee based on their transgender or transitioning status is a violation of Title VII. EEOC v. R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes, Inc., 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 5720 (6th Cir. 2018). Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 [...]
The Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation is increasing funding for a popular grant program aimed at helping firefighters avoid carcinogens on the job. The Firefighter Exposure to Environmental Elements Grant Program was slated to received $2 million in funding for the year 2018. The BWC announced an increase due to the overwhelming number of funding [...]