Prudent employers will make sure their policies cover sexual orientation and gender identity.

Federal is the safest bet.

Last week, the Missouri Court of Appeals issued an opinion holding that gender identity is not covered by the prohibition on sex discrimination in the Missouri Human Rights Act. The opinion builds on a 2015 opinion from the same court, which held that sexual orientation was not covered under the MHRA.

Last week's opinion arose from a lawsuit filed by a female-to-male high school ...

Overtime rule - what's the Trump Administration doing? Last Friday, I posted about the U.S. Department of Labor's brief in the case challenging the Obama Administration's overtime rule, which has been enjoined since November 2016. The Trump DOL position had me scratching my head because it sounded an awful lot like the Obama DOL position, and I said that we'd be hearing soon from some ...

Supreme Court agrees to review "travel ban" cases and partially stays injunctions on the ban pending a final decision. The Trump Administration won a partial victory this week when the U.S. Supreme Court decided that portions of the preliminary injunctions against the "travel ban" issued in March should be stayed. What that means is that the travel ban is now in effect for foreign ...

You may have heard by now that not one, but two, federal courts have struck down President Trump's second attempt at a travel ban Executive Order. As always, Will Krasnow and Jeanette Phelan from our Immigration Practice Group have the story, including links to the two court decisions. Last we heard, President Trump is done with rewrites -- he plans to take the battle to the Supreme ...

President Trump has issued his new and improved "travel ban" Executive Order, which reduces the list of "banned" countries from the original seven to six (Iraq is now off the list), provides more of a rationale for banning foreign nationals from the six countries, makes exceptions for permanent legal residents and others, and otherwise addresses some of the issues that caused so many ...

Two Trumpian developments of interest to employers will occur on March 15, next Wednesday:

Alex Acosta's confirmation hearing is scheduled to take place that day. Mr. Acosta is President Trump's nominee for Secretary of Labor, and is expected to have relatively smooth sailing. On the other hand, is there anything that has been "smooth" about the President's first months in ...

The employment law week in Trumpland started out a little slow, but now we're back in business.

Acosta looking good for confirmation as Secretary of Labor. In contrast to nominee Andrew Puzder, the outlook appears good for his successor nominee Alexander Acosta. Mr. Acosta seems to have bipartisan support in the Senate, and has even been endorsed by the International Union of ...

Yesterday, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit denied the Trump Administration's motion to stay the temporary restraining order issued by a federal judge in Seattle. This means that the TRO, which blocks the temporary travel ban from taking effect, will remain in place. The Administration may seek review by all of the judges on the Ninth Circuit or by the U.S. Supreme ...