Saturday, March 3, 2018
- Second Circuit: En banc decision joins Seventh Circuit (another en banc decision) in holding that Title VII prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation as discrimination “because of . . . sex”
- US Supreme Court: Cert granted to answer the following question: Whether, under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the same 20-employee minimum that applies to private employers also applies to political subdivisions of a state, as the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the 6th, 7th, 8th and 10th Circuits have held, or whether the ADEA applies instead to all state political subdivisions of any size, as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit held in this case
- US Supreme Court: Cert granted to answer the following questions (the First Circuit said no to both): 1) Whether a dispute over applicability of the Federal Arbitration Act’s Section 1 exemption is an arbitrability issue that must be resolved in arbitration pursuant to a valid delegation clause; and (2) whether the FAA’s Section 1 exemption, which applies on its face only to “contracts of employment,” is inapplicable to independent contractor agreements
- First Circuit: The court clarified the standards under the “emergency aid exception” to the Fourth Amendment requirement warrant requirement before police entry in a home: officers seeking to justify their warrantless entry need only demonstrate “an objectively reasonable basis for believing that a person within the house is in need of immediate aid”; they do not need to establish that their belief approximated probable cause that such an emergency existed
- Maine Superior Court: Maine ski liability statute did not bar personal injury claim by injured snow tuber where genuine issues of fact remained on whether ski area breached duty to operate the runout area in a manner than safely stopped tubers, and claim did not necessarily fall within immunity for the “inherent risks” of the sport or the design of the tubing facility; and liability waiver on ski ticket did not bar claim because it violated public policy and plaintiff did not agree to waiver simply by affixing ticket to jacket
- Maine Superior Court: Although injuries from a horse bite are covered by the immunity provisions of the Equine Activities Act, genuine issues of fact remained on exception to immunity for the reckless disregard for the safety of others where defendants knew horse had not had rabies vaccine
- MHRC: Free Fair Housing design and construction seminar will be March 23rd in Portland
- Bangor Daily: Maine man sues restaurant claiming racial harassment
