By Hannah R. Brefeld It is no secret that in recent years, there has been a push toward greater gender equity in sports. Organizations like the NBA, the WNBA, the NCAA, and other professional and collegiate athletic leagues, have worked to boost women and girl’s participation in sport, gain media...
By Alice K. Jump, Jill Kahn Marshall and Anna Beckelman On June 5, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision in Ames v. Ohio Dept. of Youth Services, ruling that so-called “reverse discrimination” cases are not subject to a higher standard of proof than other discrimination claims. In...
by Nafsika Karavida The Likely Reintroduction of the Patent Eligibility Reform Act The Patent Eligibility Reform Act ("PERA")[1] is expected to be reintroduced under the current Trump administration. Many in the patent law and innovation sectors believe that the administration’s pro-business stance, emphasis on intellectual property rights, and a conservative-leaning Supreme...
By Gregory Feit Consider the following scenario: A professional photographer sues a company for copyright infringement, alleging that the company displayed her copyright-protected photograph on its website without her authorization. Although properly served with the photographer’s complaint, the company never appears in the lawsuit. The photographer moves for a default...
By Jill Kahn Marshall and Anna Beckelman On April 23, 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order titled “Restoring Equality of Opportunity and Meritocracy” which aims to “eliminate the use of disparate-impact liability in all contexts to the maximum degree possible to avoid violating the Constitution, Federal civil rights...
By Ethan Krasnoo Can an employer fire an employee shortly before the employee is due to collect a bonus and withhold the bonus payment? In a ruling from May 2, 2025, a New York appellate court has held the employer cannot do so, because the withholding of an earned bonus...
By Hannah R. Brefeld With the Supreme Court’s oral argument docket coming to an end, many are curious what the outcome will be for the “reverse racism” case heard this term: Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services,[1] where the plaintiff claims her employer discriminated against her because she was...
RPJ’s Daniel Ain was recently quoted in the Associated Press in an article examining the high-profile transfers of brothers Nico and Madden Iamaleava and the broader implications for Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) buyouts in college football. Contracts between student-athletes and collectives – booster groups that support a specific university’s...
Last week, Heidi Reavis was interviewed by the Los Angeles Times regarding a series of lawsuits filed by 18-year-old Stanley Zhong and his father, Nan Zhong, alleging anti-Asian discrimination by multiple universities during the 2023 undergraduate admissions process. “Whiz kid” Stanley graduated from high school in 2023 in Palo Alto,...
As civil rights activists recently called on consumers to mount a one-day boycott of Target in late February, Vogue Business asked, “Is a consumer boycott brewing in the US?” That question has been squarely answered as calls for such boycotts have multiplied in protest of companies retreating from their diversity,...