Vail Kohnert-Yount is a student at Harvard Law School.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions decided yesterday that most victims of domestic violence may no longer apply for asylum in the United States. Immigration law allows the attorney general to singlehandedly reverse a decision by the Board of Immigration Appeals, and Sessions used that power to overturn four years of precedent. The new policy will lead to the deportation of many domestic violence survivors to their home countries, where they are likely to face continued brutality and even death.
Activists in two major Texas cities have gathered hundreds of thousands of signatures to put paid sick leave ordinances on the ballot this November. In San Antonio and Dallas, Texas’s second- and third-largest cities respectively, workers and advocates are hoping to require private employers to offer paid sick leave to all workers. Austin voters passed a similar ordinance in February, which Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and a coalition of business lobbyists are suing to stop from taking effect later this year.
Tomorrow, the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on sexual harassment and workplace misconduct in the federal judiciary. A report issued by a group of judges and administrators convened by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts—notably, including no recent clerks—to examine the judiciary’s policies on sexual harassment and other workplace misconduct found inappropriate behavior was “not pervasive in the judiciary,” but also “not limited to a few isolated instances.”
Finally, a coalition of 14 law schools released the results of a survey of law firms that recruit on their campuses regarding their use of forced arbitration agreements, which require associates and other staff to waive their right to sue if they experience illegal treatment, including sexual harassment, at work. The results show that reveal that some of the nation’s largest and most prestigious law firms are still requiring new associates to submit to forced arbitration without notice. Nearly half of surveyed firms didn’t respond.
Daily News & Commentary
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August 26
Park employees at Yosemite vote to unionize; Philadelphia teachers reach tentative three-year agreement; a new report finds California’s union coverage remains steady even as national union density declines.
August 25
Consequences of SpaceX decision, AI may undermine white-collar overtime exemptions, Sixth Circuit heightens standard for client harassment.
August 24
HHS cancels union contracts, the California Supreme Court rules on minimum wage violations, and jobless claims rise
August 22
Musk and X move to settle a $500 million severance case; the Ninth Circuit stays an order postponing Temporary Protection Status terminations for migrants from Honduras, Nicaragua, and Nepal; the Sixth Circuit clarifies that an FMLA “estimate” doesn’t hard-cap unforeseeable intermittent leave.
August 21
FLRA eliminates ALJs; OPM axes gender-affirming care; H-2A farmworkers lose wage suit.
August 20
5th Circuit upholds injunctions based on challenges to NLRB constitutionality; Illinois to counteract federal changes to wage and hour, health and safety laws.