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Employment discrimination with respect to breastfeeding at work is garnering attention in courts across the nation. The Eighth Circuit recently tackled the issue in the context of constructive discharge. The court affirmed a district court’s grant of summary judgment to an employer embroiled in a pregnancy and sex discrimination case for compelling a breastfeeding’s worker’s resignation. Three actions by Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. prompted the constructive discharge claims by the plaintiff Angela Ames:...

Want to start your car remotely because it’s cold out and you need to warm it up? There’s an app for that. Want to track your car at all times, maybe because your teenager is borrowing it for the night? There’s an app for that. Want to hack into a car’s engine, possibly turning it off from anywhere in the world? There’s an app for that. Vice reports that a hacker was able to gain access to thousands of accounts on two GPS tracking apps, giving him real-time info on where the vehicles were, and even control over the engines....

In a Title VII action alleging that Defendant improperly terminated Plaintiff while she was on medical leave, summary judgment for Defendant is affirmed in part, where Plaintiff failed to present sufficient evidence of the intent necessary for religious discrimination; but reversed in part, where there were many reasons to question Defendants’ evidence regarding the alleged grounds for Plaintiff’s termination. Read DeFreitas v. Horizon Inv. Mgmt. Corp., No. 08-1344 Appellate Information...

Is recording a will one of the requirements to make your will valid? Do you need to go file a will down at some county government building? The answer is a simple no. What many do not realize is that officially recording a will is not one of the requirements to making a valid, enforceable will. Neither is getting the will notarized. So, what do you actually need to get a will completed?...

A ride in a private jet might be fun in some cases, but not if it’s an air ambulance jet. It was really not fun for a doctor who arranged a jet ambulance for his son to be transported across the country for continuing medical care. It was actually painful because the physician’s insurance plan denied coverage. In Springer v. Cleveland Clinic Employee Health Plan Total Care, it left the doctor holding the bag and a bill for $340,000....

Wrongful Death Action Against Power Company In Eubank v. Kansas City Power & Light Co., No. 09-2038, a wrongful death action against Kansas City Power and Light Company (KCPL), the company that supplied electricity to a U.S. General Services Administration facility where the decedent was killed, the court affirmed the dismissal of KCPL’s third-party complaint, holding that the U.S. had not assumed a duty to KCPL to protect government employees from hazardous electrical equipment simply by choosing KCPL as an electrical provider....

Five Supreme Court protesters have just been sentenced to six weekends in jail. The group was arrested, and held in custody for 30 hours, after disrupting a 2015 Supreme Court proceeding. While protesting the Supreme Court is all fine and dandy, doing so inside the actual courtroom is not. The group pleaded guilty to “illegal picketing and haranguing speeches on Supreme Court grounds,” earning four of them one weekend in jail, and the fifth receiving two weekends in jail....

February is Black History Month, and many communities use this time to commemorate their roles in defying cruel federal laws in the 1800s. Those laws were the Fugitive Slave Acts of 1793 and 1850, which allowed for the capture and return of runaway slaves even if they were in a northern state that prohibited slavery, as all did by 1804. Even though the North had turned against slavery, Congress bowed to southern pressure and passed these laws....

For small business owners who wear many hats in the course of a single day, playing HR specialist can be among the most challenging of those roles. And if this week’s U.S. Supreme Court nod to let stand a $35.6 million verdict against Family Dollar Stores for unpaid overtime pay to store managers is any indication, it can prove to be an employer’s most critical responsibilities as well. One major source of confusion, and the basis for the Family Dollars Stores suit, is whether to classify workers as exempt or non-exempt (hourly)....

In Re: Zarnel, No. 07-0090, involved an appeal from a district court’s order dismissing a bankruptcy trustee’s appeal for lack of standing and in the alternative affirming the bankruptcy court’s decision to strike the bankruptcy petitions filed by respondents rather than to dismiss their cases. The court vacated the order on the grounds that 1) the U.S. Trustee’s responsibility to represent and protect the public interest afforded it a substantial interest in, and therefore standing, to proceed with this appeal; 2) the court needed only assure itself that it was deciding a live case or controversy, and Article III jurisdiction existed; and 3) the restrictions of 11 U....

Officer Koessel had a stroke. About eight months later, he was cleared to return, full-time, sans overtime. He was assigned to desk duty, though he was allowed to make traffic stops while on his daily commute. The arrangement didn’t last long. His coworkers expressed concerns over his fitness for duty after a captain overheard him becoming flustered after being unable to remember a word during a traffic stop. His duties were then amended again, and he was only allowed to perform backup duties, not initiate stops....

Before you spend time and money trying to suppress evidence used in sentencing, you should probably make sure that suppressing that evidence would result in a different sentence for your client. Gregory Prude’s lawyer failed to demonstrate such foresight, and cost Prude his challenge under Rule 32 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. Prude pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute marijuana and conspiracy to commit money laundering....

An ordinance in Springfield, Illinois, prohibits panhandling in the historic downtown shopping district. The ordinance is specific in that panhandling is an oral request for money right now – not an immediate request for money via a sign or an oral request for money at a later date. Don Norton and Karen Otterson are panhandlers who’ve been arrested numerous times for violating the ordinance. On appeal to the Seventh Circuit, they claimed that the ordinance infringed on their First Amendment rights....

The Supreme Court declined to take up review of the Ninth Circuit’s ruling in Martin v. City of Boise this week, leaving in place a ruling that fining or jailing a homeless person for staying outside is unconstitutional. The case stemmed from two city ordinances in Boise: One that prohibited “camping” in parks, streets, and other public property; and another that banned “lodging or sleeping” in any place (public or private) without the owner’s permission....

In an action seeking a declaration that plaintiff held a lease on certain oil-producing land, judgment for plaintiff is affirmed where the production allocation scheme of the unit failed to meet the unambiguous requirements of defendant’s lease, and that lease had expired by its terms. Read Trans-Western Petroleum, Inc. v. US Gypsum Co., No. 08-4120 Appellate Information Filed October 27, 2009 Judges Opinion by Judge Holloway Counsel For Appellants: Jack R....

Conviction for knowingly persuading, inducing, enticing, or coercing an individual under the age of 18 to engage in criminal sexual activity is affirmed where the government’s failure to disclose the identity behind two of the screen names did not violate Brady and entitle defendant to a new trial as the information was not material. Read US v. Daniel, No. 08-2672 Appellate InformationAppeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Indiana, Hammond Division....

In a personal injury action based on a fall aboard a ship, judgment for defendant is affirmed primarily as the district court had admiralty jurisdiction because the alleged tort occurred on navigable waters and the activity giving rise to the incident had a substantial relationship to traditional maritime activity, such that the incident had a potentially disruptive influence on maritime commerce. Read Vasquez v. GMD Shipyard Corp., No. 08-4566 Appellate Information...

District court’s judgment is affirmed to the extent it affirms the Bankruptcy Court’s determination that Wawel did not waive its security interest in JTTT’s accounts receivable. District court’s holding that Yale did not act in good faith and therefore cannot be a holder in due course or a purchaser of instruments is vacated and remanded. Read Wawel Savings Bank v. Jersey Tractor Trailer Training, Inc. , No. 08-3471 Appellate Information...

The Ninth Circuit ruled that the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians did not inadvertently waive their sovereign immunity by removing a state court matter into a federal court. This is largely because such a move did not constitute a clean and unequivocal waiver. With or without a trial, the ruling is a landmark victory for various Native American nations’ sovereignty. Family Medical Leave Act The tribe met trouble in court when one of its former employees sued it for allegedly violating the Family and Medical Leave Act....

The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals chopped down California’s royalties law for visual artists – again. In 2015, the federal appeals court said one part of the California Resale Royalties Act was unconstitutional. The artists sued again, and wound up right back where they started from. In Close v. Southeby’s, Inc., the Ninth Circuit said federal law preempts the state law and applies only to art sold before the U....