Wednesday, April 6, 2022
- EEOC: New guidance document, “The COVID-19 Pandemic and Caregiver Discrimination Under Federal Employment Discrimination Laws,” addresses when discrimination against applicants and employees related to pandemic caregiving responsibilities may violate Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Titles I and V of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, or other EEOC-enforced laws
- US DOJ: New guidance document, “The Americans with Disabilities Act and the Opioid Crisis: Combating Discrimination Against People in Treatment or Recovery,” provides information about how the ADA protects individuals with opioid use disorder from discrimination
- US District Court ME: Americans with Disabilities Act and Maine Human Rights Act damage caps are waivable affirmative defenses
- US District Court ME: Plaintiff is not required to show she suffered an “adverse employment action” to establish a failure to accommodate disability employment discrimination claim under Americans with Disabilities Act and Maine Human Rights Act
- US District Court ME: Motion to dismiss § 1983 due process claim by former public school employee denied where she plausibly alleged that her employment was terminated without adequate notice and an opportunity to be heard (she was told during a meeting that the termination decision had been made and given until the following day to decide whether to resign), despite extensive post-termination process offered to cure the constitutional deficiencies of the pre-termination process
- Law Court: Plaintiff’s allegation of “injury in the form of embarrassment, shame, humiliation, emotional distress, and harm to his reputation” was insufficient “actual injury” to overcome defendant’s anti-SLAPP motion to dismiss absent a showing of emotional distress so severe that no reasonable person could be expected to endure it (which usually requires expert testimony) and evidence of actual injury to reputation or quantifiable loss (compared with presumed reputational injury allowable in defamation cases)
- Law Court: Applying its previously adopted definition of a fixture to determine whether an object is an appurtenance for purposes of coverage under the public buildings exception to Maine Tort Claims Act immunity, the court held that a parking lot contiguous to a public building was not an appurtenance (and therefore MTCA immunity barred negligence suit)
- First Circuit: Summary judgment affirmed on Age Discrimination in Employment Act and Americans with Disabilities Act claims where plaintiff failed to show non-discriminatory justification for termination was pretextual
- MHRC: Minutes of March 14th Meeting posted
- MHRC: April 11th Meeting Agenda and Consent Agenda posted
