I have previously written about joint employers. See my posts here and here. TheTrump administration tried to make it harder to show a joint employer relationship. It adopted an interpretive regulation which the DOL thought would make it harder to prove joint employers. But, the court in State of New York v. Scalia,
This past week, the US Supreme Court addressed a nagging question, how far does the ministerial exception to Title VII go? The problem occurs in religious schools. A teacher may teach a wide range of subjects, with only 10% of her time devoted to teaching religious subjects. Is that teacher subject to the minister exception
Several years ago, in a federal courthouse here in Texas, a lawyer friend tried a case of white discrimination. A white man was fired under suspicious circumstances. His boss had used the term “gringo,” often. If the man’s race had been Hispanic and the term used was “greaser,” then most persons in Texas would agree
Its a remarkable thing for a sitting U.S. district judge to say about the Attorney General of the United States: Comparing the public statements by AG Barr about the Mueller report, at a time when the public did not have access to the report, to the actual redacted Mueller report, portions of which conflict with
Pres. Trump has attacked judges since 2016. His broadside against a sitting U.S. District Judge was remarkable, saying Judge Amy Berman Jackson was biased in some unspecified way against Roger Stone. He also attacked the foreperson of the Stone trial jury. He accused Tomeka Hart of being biased because she had previously run as a
The Fifth Circuit has again applied a “pretext plus” formula to affirm a grant of summary judgment. In Harville v. City of Houston, Mississippi, No. 18-60117 (5th Cir. 8/16/2019), the City fired a deputy clerk. The City Clerk, Margaret Futral, testified that Mary Harville was an essential deputy clerk who worked on taxes.
When I did my twelve months in Iraq, I knew my law license was at some small risk. Even though I was in the Army in a non-lawyer role. I knew I could not lie or violate any law. Non-soldiers may not realize this, but in a war zone, there is some pressure to violate
What happens when an employee files suit, perhaps unaware of the existence of a forced arbitration agreement? How long might a lawsuit progress before the employer mentions the supposed arbitration agreement? In Vectra Infosys v. Adema, No. 05-18-01371 (Tex.App. Dallas 8/28/2019), the employer responded to the lawsuit and conducted extensive discovery. The employer filed
A court in New Jersey struck the entire closing argument made by the defense attorney in a lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson. Several plaintiffs are suing Johnson and Johnson on the basis that asbestos in talcum powder decades ago caused them to contract mesothelioma in the plaintiffs’ stomach linings. Mesothelioma is a type of cancer.
Many veterans have returned from the two wars with some degree of PTSD. I myself have some low level PTSD in limited situations. But, that does not mean we cannot perform our jobs. In Alviar v. Macy’s Inc., No. 17-1130 (5th Cir. 8/15/2019), the Fifth Circuit reversed an award of summary judgment. Plaintiff Alviar