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Institutions around the country are in turmoil, subject to loud clamoring about events in the Middle East. Many members of their communities are making claims of anti-Semitism, while there are counterclaims of Islamophobia. Public universities and institutions may have no way to avoid those disruptions, but fortunately private employers need not be pulled into that […]
People can hold grudges for a long time. But when a manager is holding a grudge against an employee, how long can that grudge continue? Well, in one case, a manager held a grudge against an employee for 11 years. The case comes to us out of Utah, where a former sheriff’s department firearms instructor […]
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is pondering a gnawing question: When might the display of a 12-foot inflatable rat with blood-red eyes and jagged teeth violate the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA)?
Can an employer fire employees solely over what they’ve posted on social media? Does the answer change, depending on whether the post was made from a work or personal device? Does it matter whether the person’s social media account is connected to the employer in some way?
At the beginning of one episode of The Simpsons, Bart is seen writing “The First Amendment does not cover burping” on the blackboard. Although the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states that “Congress shall make no law abridging” freedom of speech, more than two centuries of practical application have taught us that even the […]
A sharply divided U.S. Supreme Court ruled June 27 that unions representing public-sector workers can’t collect fees from those who choose not to join the union—a decision seen as a major threat to the financial structure of unions representing government workers, but also being called a rallying point for unions.
Federal Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald ruled that President Trump could not block certain Twitter users from viewing his tweets, and that doing so was in violation of the U.S. Constitution. This ruling comes on the heels of President Trump—whose Twitter handle @realDonaldTrump—blocking some of his critics, many of them celebrities, from his Twitter account. Those […]
by T. Harold Pinkley Participating in last year’s Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia—an event that involved several groups usually identified as the “alt-right,” along with groups protesting the marchers—has proven to have unforeseen and unintended consequences, including job loss, for some of the people involved. This article examines how you can or should […]
by David L. Johnson Recently, a Pennsylvania YMCA stopped showing cable news shows on the TVs in its gym because they were prompting political squabbles among its members. When filtered into the diverse workplace, passionate opposing political viewpoints can harm productivity and morale and even create liability issues for employers. Sometimes political discussions can morph […]
by Michelle Lee Flores Actor and writer Marlon Wayans’ use of the term “nigga,” his comments referring to an actor’s “afro” and comparing him to a black character on Family Guy, and his tweet, including a side-by-side photo comparison of the actor and the Family Guy character, were all protected speech, according to a trial […]