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Legislative fix of Minnesota’s whistleblower law continues to have a positive impact
August 1st, 2019
The Minnesota Court of Appeals recently rendered an important whistleblower ruling. In that case, Moore v. City of New Brighton, the Court reversed summary judgment for the employer and remanded the whistleblowing claims to the district court for tri…
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Categories: Blog
Supreme Court favors gamesmanship over civil rights and fundamental fairness
July 1st, 2019
In Rucho v. Common Cause, and by a narrow 5-4 majority, the Supreme Court turned its back on democracy by allowing States to draw voting districts however they want. The Supreme Court majority so ruled despite understanding the decision means that St…
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Categories: Blog
Slim Supreme Court majority again uses arbitration clauses to thwart robust enforcement of workplace rights
May 1st, 2019
Five Justices of the Supreme Court reversed both the District Court and the Court of Appeals in Lamps Plus, Inc. v. Varela to rule that the right to pursue class action claims through arbitration must be clear. In Lamps Plus, an employee (Mr. Frank V…
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Categories: Blog
Trump’s DOL and NLRB continue to pursue policies that evidently favor corporations over people
April 9th, 2019
For starters, a little context is in order. During the Obama Administration, both the United States Department of Labor (“DOL”) and the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) reinforced the legal standard for proving that two supposedly sepa…
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Categories: Blog
Minnesota Supreme Court overrules itself to declare that workers compensation law no longer bars civil rights claims in the workplace
March 4th, 2019
In Daniel v. City of Minneapolis, the Minnesota Supreme Court reversed course and rejected the legal standard established 30 years ago under employment law in Karst v. F.C. Hayer Co., 447 N.W.2d 180 (Minn. 1989). Before Daniel, and for the past 3 dec…
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Categories: Blog
Another contrived government shutdown compromises enforcement of workplace protections
January 1st, 2019
After making a number of threats over the past year, the Trump Administration recently imposed a Federal government shutdown with no end in sight. The Trump Administration has forced the shutdown in an effort to extract money for the construction and…
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Categories: Blog
Predictions for 2019 . . . the certainty of uncertainty
December 17th, 2018
The seemingly ongoing and escalating controversies at the Federal level make the legal environment somewhat unpredictable. If current trends persist, however, the Trump Administration will continue to attempt to limit workplace protections and relate…
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Categories: Blog
Mid-term election results mean the potential for more workplace rights and protections
November 12th, 2018
In Minnesota and across the nation, progressive and other pro-employee candidates won many of the elections at the Local, State, and even Federal levels. That outcome could mean more workplace fairness – whether through agency enforcement actions,…
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Categories: Blog
By the slimmest majority, the Supreme Court turns its back on working people and the public interest yet again
July 2nd, 2018
In another sharply divided opinion, the United States Supreme Court again disregarded decades of settled law to undercut workplace rights. In Janus v. AFSCME, 5 Justices of the Supreme Court declared that employees in the public sector no longer need…
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Categories: Blog
Supreme Court and Congress act in the same week to undercut the rule of law
June 1st, 2018
In Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis, the United States Supreme Court recently declared that employees can be forced to give up their rights to participate in class actions or collective actions when they face wage theft, retaliation, discrimination, haras…
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Categories: Blog