The question of whether religiously affiliated nonprofit organizations and commercial businesses owned by conservative religious individuals must comply with the mandate in the health reform law that requires health insurance plans to cover contraception without a co-pay is playing out in 59 pending federal court lawsuits. In each, the plaintiff employers are arguing that the [...]
Puerto Rico Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla has signed legislation that bars workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity and that extends protection from domestic violence to same-sex couples. This puts Puerto Rico ahead of Congress and almost half the states in enacting laws to prevent employment discrimination. The action came after strong opposition [...]
By not accepting review in a case, the Michigan Supreme Court has in effect allowed public employee partner benefits to remain in force, despite the decision by voters in 2004 to adopt a state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage and “similar unions.” Earlier this year, an intermediate appellate court ruled that state employee eligibility for [...]
The idea of a national law prohibiting job discrimination based on sexual orientation is so old that it could have grandchildren by now. (Maybe that’s how to think of the marriage campaign – equality demands skipped a generation.) At any rate, there continues to be no immediate future for enactment of such a law in [...]
The Fifth Circuit has granted rehearing en banc (2013 WL 1276022) in EEOC v. Boh Brothers, 689 F.3d 458 (5th Cir. 2012), in which a panel of that court had overruled a jury verdict for a male plaintiff who alleged sexual harassment based on gender nonconformity in violation of Title VII. The panel found that the [...]
Tomorrow night (details here), I’m going to be on a panel with Gary Gates, Chad Griffin and Patrick Guerrero sponsored by the Williams Institute, discussing the impact of the election on lgbt rights. At the federal level, I see four clusters of issues as the most important questions likely to arise while Obama remains [...]