On Saturday, the Palestinian militant group Hamas carried out a surprise attack in Israel that reportedly left over 900 dead. Israel has since responded with a declaration of war. What does this Middle East conflict have to do with employment law? You have Jewish employees. Antisemitism is rising, and the…
I’m speaking figuratively, of course. Taxpayer dollars do not support judges bruising and battering litigants who appear in court. However, the defendant is probably still smarting from this recent Fifth Circuit decision, in which the court overturned a lower court ruling dismissing the plaintiff’s claims that the defendant failed to…
Last month, following an airline’s loss in a religious bias lawsuit brought by a former employee, a Texas federal judge issued a scathing 29-page decision in which he ordered the airline to have three of its lawyers complete 8 hours of religious-liberty training each. Read this post if you want more…
I promised you a doozy today, and I plan to deliver! About a year ago, a federal jury in Texas concluded that a flight attendant’s sincerely-held religious beliefs (specifically, those underpinning her pro-life stance on abortion) unlawfully motivated her labor union and employer to discriminate against her. How mad was…
Did you know that in 2022, claims of religious discrimination at work filed with the EEOC were up over 650% from the previous year? SIX HUNDRED AND FIFTY PERCENT! The driving force was a significant increase in vaccine-related charges filed based on religion. Combine that with the recent Supreme Court…
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 creates a statutory obligation for covered employers to make reasonable accommodations for workers’ religious observances, short of incurring an undue hardship. At a minimum, aggrieved employees generally must establish three elements in a failure-to-accommodate lawsuit: the plaintiff-employee had a bona fide…
About 50 years ago, Congress tweaked Title VII, a federal law that makes it unlawful to discriminate against workers based on their religion. It clarified that employers must “reasonably accommodate. . . an employee’s or prospective employee’s religious observance or practice” unless the employer is “unable” to do so “without…
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 forbids employers from discriminating against employees based on religion. As the EEOC points out, “the law protects not only people who belong to traditional, organized religions, such as Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism, but also others who have sincerely held religious,…
Yesterday, the EEOC released a new fact sheet on “What To Do If You Face Antisemitism at Work,” which, according to this survey, is a relatively common occurrence. Most of the fact sheet generally applies to any protected class. For example, the fact sheet states, “Title VII … prohibits workplace…
I’ll explain why a federal court determined the complaint of a sports radio talk show host failed to state a claim upon which relief could be based. On October 21, 2021, the plaintiff filed an employment discrimination and retaliation lawsuit against his former employer, contending that he was terminated due…