May 24, 2017
UPDATE: MISSOURI LEGISLATURE PASSES MINIMUM WAGE BILL, OVERRIDING ST. LOUIS CITY ORDINANCE (BUT ORDINANCE REMAINS IN PLACE, AT LEAST THROUGH AUGUST) At the end of the most recent legislative session, the Missouri General Assembly passed a minimum wage bill (HB 1194 & 1193), prohibiting “political subdivision[s]” (including municipalities) from establishing a minimum wage that exceeds state law. This bill effectively overrides the City of St. Louis ordinance establishing a minimum wage of $10/hour. Prior discussion about
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May 5, 2017
Background: City’s New Minimum Wage Law Withstood Legal Challenge and Avoided Action from Missouri General Assembly to Become Law The City of St. Louis”™ new, higher minimum wage of $10 per hour takes effect today, May 5, 2017. Back in 2015 when the City took up the minimum wage legislation, few would have predicted that the City’s efforts to raise its minimum wage would become law. Almost immediately after its passage in 2015, the City’s minimum wage law was
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Apr 10, 2017
On April 4, 2017, the Seventh Circuit issued a landmark decision, holding that sexual orientation discrimination qualifies as sex discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (“Title VII”). The 8-3 ruling is the first by an U.S. Court of Appeals to hold that sexual orientation is prohibited under federal employment discrimination law. As noted, in a previous Tueth Keeney Insight regarding this case, Hively v. Ivy Tech Community College, a panel of
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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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Mollie G. Mohan
Lisa J. Berns
Kylie S. Piatt
Melanie Gurley Keeney
Michelle H. Basi