Rebecca Baker

4 days ago | jdsupra.com | Rebecca Baker |E. Phileda Tennant

[co-author: Feliz Smith]On June 5, 2025—in the midst of heightened scrutiny of diversity, equity, and inclusion (“DEI”) initiatives triggered by executive orders issued by President Trump as well as various federal agency guidance—the Supreme Court unanimously rejected the heightened “background circumstances” requirement imposed on Marlean Ames, a heterosexual woman who filed a gender and sexual orientation discrimination claim against her employer, the Ohio Department of Youth Services.

3 weeks ago | velaw.com | Rebecca Baker |E. Phileda Tennant

In 2004, Ames joined the Ohio Department of Youth Services, which operates Ohio’s juvenile correctional system.  Ames was a program administrator when, in 2019, she applied and interviewed for a new management position, but the agency hired a different candidate, a lesbian woman, for the role.  Shortly thereafter, Ames “accepted a demotion” to the secretarial position she held when she first joined the agency in 2004.

1 month ago | analyticalsciencejournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com | Samuel Rot |Aaron Oliver-Taylor |Rebecca Baker |Jennifer A. Steeden

2.1.1.1 Concentration Measurement The gels were prepared to nominal sodium concentrations using mass measurements, allowing the precise evaluation of the mass of sodium present in each vial, in grams. However, as the samples were prepared by dilution of different quantities of the 5 M NaCl stock solution with the monomer solution of unknown density, without performing volumetric measurements, the actual sodium concentration (molarity) of samples was unknown.

Mar 26, 2025 | jdsupra.com | Rebecca Baker |Sean Becker

On March 19, 2025, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) issued two technical assistance documents (the “DEI Guidance”) addressing the application of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (“Title VII”) to employers’ diversity, equity, and inclusion (“DEI”) policies and practices.

Feb 28, 2025 | jdsupra.com | Rebecca Baker |E. Phileda Tennant

On February 26, 2025, the Supreme Court and all three counsel appearing before it in Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services, appeared to walk away in “radical agreement” — as noted by Justice Neil Gorsuch — that a majority-group plaintiff is not required to proffer more evidence of discrimination than a non-majority-group plaintiff in order to state a prima facie claim under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.