Last week, I wrote about a report in Bloomberg BNA that the Trump Administration was thinking about letting the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission "absorb" the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs. The idea had some appeal for me because both agencies enforce variants on federal prohibitions against discrimination. But I admitted that I hadn't thought it ...

Last week, two lawsuits were filed in federal court in Texas seeking to block the Final Rule on white-collar exemptions to the overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act, which was issued in May. Meanwhile, legislation that would delay the effective date of the rule until June 2017 just passed the U.S. House of Representatives, and there is other legislation pending in ...

Vice President Joe Biden is expected to announce the official release of the U.S. Department of Labor's new overtime rule this afternoon in an appearance at Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream in Columbus, Ohio. I'll post the rule, which will change the white-collar overtime exemptions to the Fair Labor Standards Act, as soon as it's available. Meanwhile, the DOL has already released the ...

A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit ruled this week that obesity is not a "disability" within the meaning of the Americans with Disabilities Act -- even as amended in 2009 -- unless the condition was caused by some underlying physiological disorder.

In addition, if the individual develops a medical condition because of the obesity (such as diabetes or ...

UPDATE (April 1): Here's the latest challenge, filed today in federal court in Texas.

Mercy me! We now have a second challenge to the U.S. Department of Labor's Persuader Rule, filed today in federal court in Minnesota. This morning, I reported on a lawsuit filed yesterday in federal court in Arkansas. What will tomorrow bring?

The Minnesota lawsuit was filed by a network of labor ...

So what's the real deal with the Employment Non-Discrimination Act?

Yesterday's passage by the U.S. Senate, 64-32, of the ENDA, which would prohibit employment discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity, does not mean that the ENDA will become the law of the land -- at least, not for now.

Media reports have, with some justification, focused on the historic facts that ...