Yesterday, President Biden announced that he is entering two Executive Orders requiring COVID-19 vaccines for federal workers and contractors and that administrative agencies (the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration) will be issuing requirements establishing vaccine protocols for large employers and healthcare providers. President Biden expressed his frustration with the loss of momentum in citizens getting vaccinated and stated that “our patience is wearing thin.” The new mandates may…

In another chapter in litigation alliteration, in Maner v. Dignity Health, f/k/a Catholic Healthcare West, the Ninth Circuit held that a male employee’s theory that his supervisor’s long-term romantic relationship with a co-worker could not be the basis for his own Title VII claim that he was discriminated due to his sex. The Court noted that his supervisor’s “paramour preference” for a female subordinate was not enough to show that the employee had suffered discrimination…

The Third Circuit Court of Appeals recently held that the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA) entitles employees to paid short-term military leave in certain circumstances, following the Seventh Circuit’s similar holding in White v. United Airlines, Inc. In Travers v. Federal Express Corporation, Gerard Travers sued his employer, FedEx, under USERRA, alleging that the company wrongfully withheld paid leave benefits for leave he took as part of his Naval…

A federal district court in Texas recently struck down the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program – known commonly as DACA – holding that the program was improperly implemented by the former Obama administration and, therefore, is illegal. Since DACA’s inception in 2012, roughly 800,000 people brought to the United States as undocumented children have taken advantage of the program to avoid deportation and obtain renewable Employment Authorization Documents (EADs) allowing them to work. These…