In a ruling issued September 3, 2009, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit held that an employer that follows an affirmative action plan in making an employment decision can be guilty of unlawful race discrimination. The Court’s decision in Humphries v. Pulaski County Special School District is the first in the Eighth Circuit to address
Iowa Supreme Court Issues Important Ruling on Pregnancy Discrimination
Last week the Iowa Supreme Court issued a ruling in a pregnancy discrimination case that decided three issues significant to employers and employment litigators.
The first issue in DeBoom v. Raining Rose, Inc. involved whether an employee must actually be pregnant at the time of a termination to be protected by the Iowa Civil Rights Act’s
Religious Discrimination vs. Free Speech
Late August means it’s time for the Iowa State Fair, one of the Top 100 Events in North America, home of corn dogs, the butter cow, and over one million visitors. One of the interesting side-shows at this year’s fair involved the Des Moines Regional Transit Authority (DART), an atheist 
organization, and a Christian bus driver.
Update: Religious Discrimination
Two recent cases out of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit (which includes Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota, Missouri, Arkansas, and North and South Dakota) serve as important reminders that employers should be alert to potential claims of religious discrimination and religion based harassment occurring in their work places:
- On July 31, the EEOC
Mid-Summer Employment Law Update
Between a busy trial schedule and the other distractions of summer, we have been a little 
delinquent in keeping you up to date during the past couple of weeks. We apologize for the inactivity on the blog, as there have been many developments in the employment law world since our last posting at the end