On June 29, 2023, the Washington Supreme Court issued its decision in Alaska Airlines v. State of Washington Department of Labor & Industries. This case concerned the Washington Family Care Act, a statute that entitles employees to unpaid leave to care for sick family members.

A group of Chinese citizens and a real estate brokerage firm are suing the State of Florida over the state’s new law that restricts foreign investment in Florida real estate from specific countries, and enacts a near ban on purchases by Chinese, Russian, and other foreign nationals.

Title VII of the Civil Rights Law of 1964 generally requires employers to accommodate individuals’ religious beliefs. However, employers are not obligated to do so where the accommodation would impose an undue hardship on their business operations. In 1977, the U.S. Supreme Court held that employers could avoid having to provide an accommodation if doing so would impose “more than a de minimis cost” or burden. Trans World Airlines v. Hardison, 432 U.S. 63, 84 (1977). The decades that followed have seen copious litigation about what more than de minimis means in this context.

Fort Lauderdale Partners Michael G. Platner and Cheryl Wilke were recently featured in Florida Trend Magazine’s list of “Legal Elite Notable Managing Partners” for the publication’s 65th anniversary issue.  

New York Partner Alan R. Levy recently secured an appellate victory in the New York’s Appellate Division, First Judicial Department, on behalf of the employer of a worker who was severely injured in a construction site accident. In the underlying case, the plaintiff was employed as a laborer providing “general housekeeping” on a construction site in New York City.

On June 20, 2023, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced an enforcement action against Swedbank Latvia AS, headquartered in Riga, Latvia (Swedbank Latvia or the Bank).

On June 6, 2023, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) announced the proposed implementation of sweeping new rules for the purpose of strengthening the detection and prevention of fraud in financial reporting. As PCAOB Chair Erica Y. Williams explained, “By catching and communicating noncompliance sooner, auditors can help companies course correct and better protect investors from risk.” PCAOB states that it bases its new rules on the fact that they found a year-over-year increase in the number of audit deficiencies dating back to 2021, and that since 2022, they found an increase in comment forms highlighting bad trends in audit quality.

Lewis Brisbois is pleased to announce the promotion of Cybersecurity Partner Tawana B. Johnson to Vice Chair. In her new role, Ms. Johnson will join New Orleans Partner Ross Molina as Vice Chair of the practice. 

Despite numerous recent legal losses, the NCAA has asserted its intention to enforce its rules and crackdown on alleged NIL violations committed by its member schools. In our most recent Law360 article issued earlier this month, we discussed recent trends regarding state legislation that has already been introduced or become law (Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, New York, Texas, and Colorado).

Nevada’s minimum wage will increase effective July 1, 2023. For the period covering July 1, 2023 through June 30, 2024, the minimum wage rate for Nevada employees is $10.25 per hour if the employee is offered qualifying health benefits, and $11.25 per hour if the employee is not offered qualifying health benefits. 

Following up on our Client Alert from June 28 regarding Mallory, it should also be emphasized that Justice Alito was the fifth and deciding vote on Parts I and III-B of the Court’s limited majority opinion reaffirming Pennsylvania Fire, but wrote his own special concurrence explaining that he would have held “general jurisdiction by registration” statutes unconstitutional on other grounds—specifically, the Dormant Commerce Clause.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has proposed significant amendments to the Health Breach Notification Rule (HBNR) in response to the rapid evolvement of health apps and other health related technologies. These changes aim to strengthen and modernize the rule, ensuring that consumers' health data are protected and that companies provide timely notifications when breaches occur.

On June 27, 2023, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) updated the “Know Your Rights: Workplace Discrimination Is Illegal” poster. Significantly, the new poster includes information about the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA), which was signed into law on December 29, 2022. PWFA requires covered employers to provide “reasonable accommodations” to a worker’s known limitations related to pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions, unless the accommodation causes the employer an “undue hardship.” The PWFA also requires covered employers to post a notice describing the law’s protections. This Act does not replace any federal, state, or local law that may be more protective of workers affected by pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions. 

On June 27, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a sharply divided opinion that appears to backtrack on the Court’s steady trajectory away from assertions of general jurisdiction in recent years, e.g. Goodyear Dunlop Tires Operations, S.A. v. Brown, 564 U.S. 915, 919 (2011), Daimler AG v. Bauman, 134 S. Ct. 746 (2014), BNSF Railway Co. v. Tyrrell, 2017, 137 S. Ct. 1549 (2017). Relying on a case from 1917, Pennsylvania Fire Ins. Co. of Philadelphia v. Gold Issue Mining & Milling Co., 243 U. S. 93 (1917), Justice Gorsuch, writing on behalf of the plurality, (Justices Gorsuch, Thomas, Sotomayor, and Jackson) (Justice Alito concurring) found that Norfolk Southern “consented” to jurisdiction in Mallory via 42 Pa. Cons. Stat. §5301(a)(2)(i),(b) by registering to do business in Pennsylvania. This statute, 42 Pa. Cons. Stat. §5301, specifically permits jurisdiction over a corporation “incorporat[ed] under or qualifi[ed]as a foreign corporation under the laws of this Commonwealth … for any cause of action that may asserted against him, whether or not arising from acts enumerated in this section.”

On June 4, 2023, President Putin instructed the government of the Russian Federation to use proceeds from the “exit tax,” which foreigners from “unfriendly” states pay when selling their Russia assets, for subsidies to the Industry Development Fund and for funding research and development projects to develop “priority industrial goods,” including reverse engineering.