Apr 6, 2017
April Blog post HB 104 ““ Prevailing Wage Repeal In Progress WILL PREVAILING WAGE CONTINUE TO PREVAIL IN MISSOURI? As Missouri public school districts are aware, the Missouri Prevailing Wage Law (located at RSMo. 290.210-290.340) (the “Act”) applies to construction projects and generally requires that workers employed by or on behalf of a public body for the “construction of public works, exclusive of maintenance work” be paid the prevailing hourly rate applicable to the county in which the public body
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Mar 23, 2017
The United States Supreme Court issued its opinion in Endrew F. v. Douglas County School District RE-1 on March 22, 2017, which addressed the question of how to determine whether a child with disabilities has received appropriate educational benefits as required under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). The Court’s unanimous decision vacated and remanded the Tenth Circuit’s ruling below, rejecting the court of appeal’s application of a “merely more than de minimis“ standard for determining
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Mar 13, 2017
Tueth Keeney attorneys Melanie Gurley Keeney and Mollie E. Hennessee, joined by attorneys from other member firms of the Employment Law Alliance (“ELA”), recently participated in preparing and filing amicus briefs in federal cases pending before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. District Court of Hawaii, challenging the Executive Orders issued by President Trump on January 27, 2017 and March 6, 2017. Tueth Keeney and other ELA-member law firms weighed in on the negative effect that these
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Mar 8, 2017
On Monday, March 6, 2017, President Trump signed an Executive Order replacing the previously”‘issued Executive Order that banned the entry of citizens and nationals of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen, suspended the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program indefinitely for Syrians and for a period of 120 days for everyone else, and directed various other changes or reviews of the nation’s immigration system. The new Executive Order contains similar provisions, but includes some clarifications and exclusions not contained in
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Mar 7, 2017
The United States Supreme Court will no longer hear argument on the case regarding transgender students, which was previously set to be heard on March 28, 2017. On March 6, 2017, the Supreme Court issued an Order vacating the Fourth Circuit’s prior decision in G.G. v. Gloucester County School Board and remanding the case back to the Circuit Court for further consideration. The Order follows the February 22, 2017, joint letter from the Department of Justice and the Department of
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Mar 6, 2017
February 28 Ruling is Conclusion of ~18 Months of Litigation Over St. Louis Minimum Wage
On February 28, 2017, the Missouri Supreme Court issued a ruling rejecting a challenge to the City of St. Louis’s 2015 enactment of a local minimum wage law, in the process affirming the City’s efforts to raise its minimum wage from the state minimum wage of $7.65 in 2015 to $11 per hour by 2018 through a series of annual incremental increases.
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Feb 24, 2017
On February 22, 2017, the Department of Justice and Department of Education issued a joint letter withdrawing the Dear Colleague Letter issued by the Departments on May 13, 2016, regarding transgender students. That guidance took the position that Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 required schools to grant access to sex-segregated facilities, such as restrooms and locker rooms, based on gender identity. The Departments have now withdrawn that guidance, stating that guidance did not contain
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Feb 24, 2017
On February 22, 2017, the United States Supreme Court issued an opinion in Fry v. Napoleon Community Schools, et al., holding that the requirement to exhaust administrative remedies under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (the “IDEA”) only applies when the essence of a plaintiff’s complaint seeks relief for a denial of a free appropriate public education, or FAPE. In Fry, school officials denied a child with cerebral palsy from bringing her service dog, Wonder, to kindergarten with her, reasoning
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Feb 1, 2017
On Friday, January 27, 2017, President Trump signed an Executive Order, titled “Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States.”
90-Day Travel Ban for Nationals of Certain Countries
Most notably, the Executive Order imposes a 90-day suspension on entry into the United States for all citizens and nationals of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. The plain language of the travel ban encompasses nonimmigrants and immigrants alike, meaning even green card holders and
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Jan 26, 2017
REMINDER: Required Use of New Form I-9 Began January 22, 2017
The Trump administration has emphasized the need for compliance in the immigration arena. Employers should focus energy on I-9 compliance to meet the obligations set forth in the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (“IRCA”) to address the likelihood of increased worksite enforcement. Employers were required to begin using the new version of the I-9 Employment Eligibility Verification Form on January 22, 2017. This
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Lisa J. Berns
Kylie S. Piatt
Melanie Gurley Keeney
Michelle H. Basi