On April 28, 2022, the Supreme Court decided the case of Cummins v. Premier Rehab Keller, concerning an individual who requested that her physical therapist obtain an American Sign Language (ASL) interpreter to communicate with her. The plaintiff in this case was both deaf and visually impaired. The physical therapist,...
In November 2021, the New York City Council passed a law regulating the use of artificial intelligence (AI) hiring tools by employers in the city, which will go into effect in January 2023; similar legislation has been proposed elsewhere in the United States and even at the federal level. These...
Years in the making, the U.S. Copyright Office has released a new strategic plan – Fostering Creativity and Enriching Culture (the “Plan”) – to be implemented over 2022-2026. Its overarching purpose is to make the copyright system more accessible, understandable, and up to date, as well as more useful to...
It took 37 years, but the New York Legislature amended the New York State Whistleblower Law, Labor Law 740, effective January 26, 2022. A flawed law that once offered little protection from retaliation for employees complaining about unlawful and unsafe conduct[1] is now one of the most robust in the...
This is the question raised by a recent lawsuit filed in the Northern District of New York by religious anti-abortion organizations against New York State. In the case, Compasscare et al. v. Cuomo et al., 19-cv-01409, the organizational plaintiffs argued that their First Amendment rights were violated by a New...
A pre-pandemic survey by the Economic Policy Institute in 2019 concluded that approximately one-half of all workplaces in the United States require at least some employees to enter into a non-compete agreement.[1] A lot has changed since, and a lot fewer people will be “on the beach” in times to...
Friends and acquaintances who are not lawyers (and even some who are) have expressed curiosity and confusion about the recent well-publicized decision by Judge Jed Rakoff of the Southern District of New York to dismiss the defamation lawsuit brought by former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin against the New York Times....
During the past five years, the New York City Council has enacted a remarkably large number of amendments to the New York City Human Rights Laws that significantly expand employees’ protections against discrimination and harassment. The following is a listing of those amendments with a short description of the new...
You may have heard recently that the Florida legislature is considering a bill dubbed “Don’t Say Gay,” which would prohibit teachers from “encourag[ing] classroom discussion about sexual orientation.” Much has been written about the way that such bills may harm students because it prevents children from learning about different kinds...
Nothing defined life in the time of COVID quite like Tiger King and, quite like COVID, we are still talking about Tiger King nearly two years later. On Christmas Eve, the production company behind Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls sued Netflix and the producers of Tiger King for copyright infringement...