In today’s news and commentary, New Jersey adopts new disparate impact rules; Teamsters oppose a major railroad merger; and a federal district court pauses more of Trump’s shutdown-related firings. 

Yesterday, the New Jersey Attorney General’s office announced new rules codifying precedents on disparate impact liability. In addition to employment discrimination, the rules also cover discrimination in housing, lending, contracting, and public accommodations. The rules largely clarify existing standards like burdens of proof; however, they are also the state’s first attempt to formally address the disparate impact implications of AI and other “automated decision-making tools” in employment and hiring. New Jersey’s move comes in the context of efforts at the federal level to eliminate disparate impact liability entirely; just last week, the Department of Justice announced that it was removing disparate impact liability from its Title VI regulations.

Meanwhile, the Teamsters Rail Conference announced its opposition to the proposed railroad merger between Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern. The companies announced the $85 billion merger in July; as I wrote back then, the the Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers Union’s Transportation Division (SMART-TD) immediately criticized the deal, while the Teamsters Rail Conference decided to “withhold further comment.” SMART-TD endorsed the deal in September after securing commitments from the companies to protect union jobs — but the Teamsters Rail Conference came out against the deal yesterday, vowing to “do everything in our power to block this harmful merger.” The announcement stated that over the past five months of negotiations, “[e]xecutives from both carriers — particularly Union Pacific — refused to make real commitments” to protect union workers. The merger is still subject to approval by the Surface Transportation Board, with Senators from both parties calling for close scrutiny of the deal.

Finally, yesterday also marked another development in the ongoing litigation over President Trump’s attempts to permanently fire federal workers during the government shutdown. Judge Susan Illston of the Northern District of California granted a request by the plaintiff unions for a preliminary injunction requiring the government to reinstate workers fired during the shutdown. This latest order follows a series of temporary restraining orders and preliminary injunctions issued by Judge Illston during the shutdown (see here, here, here, and here). The injunction reflects a provision in the continuing resolution that ended the shutdown; the provision rescinded the terminations during the shutdown and prohibited future terminations through January 2026.