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On March 30th, Alex Acosta was approved by a Senate committee to be the next Secretary of Labor, and the U.S. Senate is to take up his nomination when it reconvenes after the current April recess.  The committee’s vote was along party lines, 12-11 in favor of the nomination, even though Mr. Acosta’s nomination was much less controversial than President Trump’s first nominee for Labor, Andrew Puzder. Mr. Acosta was alternately praised and grilled by committee members at a hearing…

The Department of Labor’s appeal of the challenge to its regulations increasing the salary threshold for the white-collar exemptions has been delayed on the Department’s own motion.  On February 17th, the DoL asked the U.S. court of appeals for the Fifth Circuit to give it an additional 60 days, until May 1st, to file its reply brief, perhaps because President Trump’s nominee for Labor Secretary had not yet been confirmed by the Senate.  Resolution of the appeal is still probably…

On April 4th, a U.S. court of appeals for the first time allowed a claim of sexual orientation employment discrimination to go forward.  The case, Hively v. Ivy Tech Community College, was heard by the entire court of appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago, and the vote was 8 judges in favor, with 3 dissenting judges.  The decision reversed a ruling by a three-judge panel of the Seventh Circuit. The majority opinion in the case relied mainly on U.S.…