Google has reportedly spent approximately $270,000 to close unexplained pay gaps it identified among over 200 employees in six job groups. As part of this effort to close any "statistically significant" pay inequities, Google reviewed any job group with 30 or more employees, and at least five employees in every demographic group for which it had data. The pay increases occurred following a revised class action that was filed against the search giant earlier this year, alleging that women make less than their male counterparts at Google.
The ACLU filed a FOIA lawsuit to collect information about the policies, equipment, and training that apply to the search of electronic devices brought by passengers on domestic flights, a practice that may have begun last fall.
The judge overseeing a lawsuit filed in U.S. federal district court last fall which aims to preserve the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program ("DACA") is considering an order which would require the Trump administration to re-start the Program to admit new applicants.
Plaintiffs have filed a class action lawsuit against Lyft in Alameda County, California, claiming violations of state disability laws for the ride-hailing company's alleged failure to make its services available to wheelchair users in the San Francisco Bay Area. Represented by Disability Rights Advocates (DRA), the plaintiffs claim that Lyft's current efforts to make rides accessible to wheelchair users are a "sham," and simply direct them to local paratransit and other services if they are unable to utilize a folding wheelchair.
On March 13, 2018, Jamaican songwriter Michael May filed a complaint in New York federal court against pop artist Miley Cyrus. May, who performs under the name Flourgon, alleges copyright infringement associated with some of the lyrics in Cyrus's 2013 song, "We Can't Stop."
On March 13, 2018 the United States Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals issued an opinion regarding Texas Senate Bill 4 (SB4), a Texas law that forbids "sanctuary city" policies throughout the state, and held that SB4's provisions, with one exception, did not violate the Constitution. Read the opinion summary and opinion on Justia.
Last August, an alt-right rally called "Unite the Right" took place in Charlottesville, Virginia that resulted in the death of a woman after a man drove his car into a crowd of counterprotestors. In Sines v. Kessler, Charlottesville residents filed a lawsuit against the co-planners of the rally claiming they conspired to deprive the plaintiffs of their civil rights by encouraging such violence.
President Trump today issued an order prohibiting Broadcom's proposed take over of Qualcomm on national security grounds. The President cited “credible evidence” that leads him to believe that Broadcom (a company organized under Singaporean laws) “might take action that threatens to impair the national security of the United States.”
Senior United States District Judge Jack D. Weinstein of the New York Eastern District Court ruled on March 6th that virtual currencies, such as Bitcoin, are commodities, and that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has authority along with other state and federal administrative agencies and civil and criminal courts over dealings in virtual currency.
In July of last year, the Knight First Amendment Institute of Columbia University filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump, among others, claiming that the President's Twitter account constitutes a public forum subject to the First Amendment. The lawsuit alleges that by blocking certain users who are critical of him, President Trump is effectively denying those users access to a public forum in violation of the First Amendment.