Biden administration workplace regulations challenged

Since the Obama administration, federal workplace regulations have been under attack, with many being blocked by injunctions issued by federal judges in Texas or Louisiana and upheld by the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. The regulations and guidance issued by federal agencies under the Biden administration are the latest to be challenged.

EEOC’s Pregnant Workers Fairness Act regulations

On Monday, June 17, U.S. District Judge David Joseph in Louisiana issued a preliminary injunction that partially blocks the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC) final Pregnany Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) rule. The injunction pauses the rule from being applied against the religious organizations named as plaintiffs; the states of Louisiana and Mississippi and their agencies; and “any covered entity . . . with respect to all employees whose primary duty station is located” in those two states to the extent that “purely elective abortions” must be accommodated.

Meanwhile, U.S. District Judge D. P. Marshal—overseeing another challenge to the PWFA regulations in Arkansas—rejected the states’ bid for a preliminary injunction, dismissing the suit after concluding that they lacked standing.

EEOC’s harassment guidance

Eighteen Republican state attorneys general sued in the Eastern District of Tennessee to block the EEOC’s harassment guidance, claiming it violated the U.S. Constitution and the Administrative Procedure Act by expanding protections for gender identity beyond the Supreme Court’s Bostock decision.