Although Congress continues to debate whether to enact a "comprehensive" immigration reform program, it has passed legislation that will focus on border security and immigration enforcement.  Millions of dollars have been appropriated for hiring of new Immigration and Citizenship Enforcement (ICE) agents and providing training, technology and equipment to existing ICE offices.

A recent decision from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals highlights an emerging trend of “sex stereotype” challenges to employer grooming and appearance policies.  The case also reveals several ways employers can craft policies to avoid these challenges.

A California district court refused to dismiss a class action by an organization for the blind challenging the accessibility of Target.com under the "public accommodation" provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).  Target contended that those provisions of the ADA related only to its "brick-and -mortar" stores.  The court, however, found that Target’s website was a “gateway” to those stores and, as such, was subject to the ADA’s public accommodation requirements.  National Federation of the Blind v. Target Corp.

Earlier this year, a federal district court in Indiana consolidated twenty-three lawsuits against a nationwide package courier.  Although the lawsuits were originally filed in twenty-five different states and alleged violations of a variety of federal and state laws, each lawsuit turned on the common question of whether the package courier misclassified its drivers as independent contractors.

The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (“OFCCP”) has rescinded its Equal Opportunity Survey, which required the submission of extensive personnel data broken down by race, ethnicity, and gender.  According to its final rule the OFCCP took this action so it could “more effectively focus enforcement resources and eliminate a regulatory requirement that fails to provide value to either enforcement or contractor compliance.” The agency concluded that the “objectives of the Executive Order 11246 program can be better accomplished through means other than the EO Survey.”