Allyn & Fortuna LLPBy: Megan J. Muoio, June 2, 2017 On March 27, 2017, a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit decided in favor of the plaintiff in Christiansen v. Omnicom Group, Inc., a case involving the issue of sexual orientation discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In Christiansen, a gay employee brought a suit against his employer under the sex discrimination provision of Title VII. The employer moved to dismiss the complaint, arguing that sexual orientation discrimination…
By: Megan J. Muoio, April 3, 2017 On March 27, 2017, a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit decided the case of Christiansen v. Omnicom Group, Inc., an appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. The Second Circuit reinstated the plaintiff’s claim for gender stereotyping under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, but declined to overturn earlier precedent about sexual orientation discrimination under Title VII. A strong concurrence by two…
By: Megan J. Muoio, March 6, 2017 The Supreme Court announced last week that it will hear the matter of Hamer v. Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago during its October 2017 session. The case comes to the Supreme Court on appeal from the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals which, plaintiff has argued, issued a decision contrary to the Supreme Court’s precedents when it dismissed her appeal despite an extension of time granted by U.S. District Court Judge Ruben Castillo. Plaintiff Charmaine Hamer was formerly an intake specialist for Neighborhood…
Paula Lopez, July 29, 2016. In Smith v. Millville Rescue Squad, the New Jersey Supreme Court reversed the trial court’s dismissal of an employee’s discrimination claim based on marital status, finding that New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (LAD)’s prohibition against workplace discrimination based on marital status extends beyond whether an individual is married or unmarried, and protects employees in all marital phases (e.g., engaged, separated, divorcing, divorced, or widowed). In Millville Rescue Squad, Robert Smith and his wife Mary Smith both worked for Millville Rescue Squad (MRS). In…
By: Megan J. Muoio, March 7, 2016 Currently pending before the Supreme Court is Green v. Brennan, a case from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit that involves the question of when 45-day period to file a claim of constructive discharge as a result of racial discrimination begins to run. The case was argued before the Supreme Court on November 30, 2016. A decision is expected sometime this spring. The appellant Marvin Green was employed by the United States Postal Service as the postmaster…
Diana Uhimov, February 23, 2016 The Compassionate Care Act (CCA) was signed into law in New York in 2014, making New York the 23rd state in the U.S. to legalize medical marijuana. The CCA regulates the manufacture, sale and use of medical marijuana in New York. Under the Act, certified patients are allowed to use marijuana for treatment of a “serious condition” so long as the treatment is prescribed by a certified physician. Additionally, the CCA establishes employment regulations for medical marijuana use, including the creation of new…
Diana Uhimov, January 7, 2016 On December 19, 2015, the New York City Commission on Human Rights announced that the city’s Human Rights Law would establish among the strongest protections in the country for transgender people. New York City landlords, employers and businesses will be subject to the new regulations. Gender identity and expression bias has been illegal in New York City since 2002. But the announcement provided guidance for the first time on what conduct constitutes discrimination under the city’s Human Rights Law, setting forth penalties of…
Diana Uhimov, September 10, 2015 On Wednesday, September 9, 2015 the Second Circuit reinstated a sex discrimination case brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against Sterling Jewelers Inc. under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The suit, initiated in 2008, arose from charges from women who worked for Sterling in nine different states. The women accused Sterling, the largest fine-jewelry company in the U.S., of paying retail saleswomen less than their male counterparts and failing to give promotions to women for which they were qualified. Sterling argued in…
By: Megan J. Muoio, July 24, 2015 On July 16, 2015, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued a decision affirming that it considers sexual orientation to be covered by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964’s prohibitions against discrimination on the basis of sex. The decision, which was made 3-2 in an appeal brought by an employee of the Federal Aviation Administration who claimed that he was denied a promotion because he was gay, sets up a conflict between the EEOC and certain…
Paula Lopez, July 6, 2015. On Friday, June 26, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 decision written by Justice Anthony Kennedy (and joined by Justices Ginsburg, Sotomayor, Kagan and Breyer) that the right to marry is a fundamental right protected by the Fourteenth Amendment. The Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell et al. v. Hodges, et al. means that all states are required to license a marriage between couples of the same sex and to recognize out of state same-sex marriages. The Supreme Court’s decision reversed…