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What I've Been Reading This Week


Quite a busy week on the road which kept me out of town for a majority of the work week.  Even with trips all over Texas, I was able to read through some great articles and narrow it down to a couple that I think readers of this blog will enjoy.

As always, below are a couple articles that caught my eye this week.



Federal Court Writes That Employers Could Lawfully Engage in Employment Discrimination

A recent ruling from a federal court in Michigan stipulated that based upon the United States Supreme Court's decision in Hobby Lobby, employers could lawfully engage in some forms of employment discrimination.  As Josh Gerstein over at Politico writes, this federal court wrote in its opinion that the sincerely held religious beliefs of a closely held corporation must be respected unless the government could show a need to advance a compelling interest.  Very interesting opinion.



Daniel Fisher over at Forbes has a good article in which he speculates that several more pro employee rulings are likely to come from the NLRB before Board Member Kent Hirozawa's term ends on August 27th.  While this likely might not come as much of a surprise to some (as the NLRB has recently demonstrated a pro employee tilt), the end of Hirozawa's term certainly means we might have an inordinate number of pro employee rulings over the next few weeks.  Stay tuned...



Recently it was announced that transgender federal employees will now be allowed to use the bathroom of their choice while at work.  As Ian Smith (great first name, by the way) writes over at FedSmith.com Blogs, on August 18th, this decision was published in the Federal Register.  Quite a development on the transgender front.  

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