Compliance Stuff

KEY TAKEAWAYS: Employees with disabilities may be entitled to reasonable accommodations even if they can perform the essential functions of their job without an accommodation. Ability to perform the essential functions of the job is relevant to a failure-to-accommodate claim, but it is not dispositive. In a recent Second Circuit decision from March,  Tudor v. Whitehall Central School District , the court clarified the broad scope of workplace accommodation protections under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Specifically, the court ruled that employees with disabilities may be entitled to reasonable accommodations  even if  they can perform the essential functions of their job without one. In  Tudor,  plaintiff appealed a decision from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York granting summary judgment in favor of the defendant on a failure-to-accommodate claim brought pursuant to the ADA. The lower court ruled that an employee’s...

In the 2025 legislative session, Colorado lawmakers enacted two laws that amend the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act (CADA) in distinct and material ways. The first,  HB25-1312 , clarifies CADA’s prohibition on gender expression discrimination in the workplace, while the second amendment,  HB25-1239 , expands the remedies available to individuals with disabilities who experience discrimination in places of public accommodation. The Kelly Loving Act (HB25-1312) On May 16, 2025, Colorado Governor Jared Polis signed into law HB25-1312, also referred to as the Kelly Loving Act. Although CADA already prohibits discrimination based on an employee’s gender expression, the newly enacted law now makes clear that gender expression includes both an employee’s “Chosen Name” and “How the Individual Chooses to be Addressed.”  The law defines “Chosen Name” as “a name that an individual requests to be known as in connection to the individual’s disability, race, creed, color, religion, se...

  The Justice Department   sued   the State of South Carolina today for unnecessarily segregating adults with mental illness in adult care homes, in violation of Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Supreme Court’s decision in   Olmstead v. L.C.  The department previously notified South Carolina of its findings of civil rights violations in a   July 2023 letter , which identified steps that the state should take to remedy the violations. “People with disabilities in South Carolina can and must be able to receive services in their own homes, rather than being isolated in institutions,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “The Civil Rights Division will continue to ensure that people with disabilities can receive the services necessary to enable and empower them to leave institutions, and participate fully in community life.” “The ADA requires publi...