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The Supreme Court recently concluded that if an employee was treated differently because of a protected characteristic, this was enough to warrant a jury trial in a discrimination case. Now, a federal appeals court has refused to extend that reasoning to a hostile work environment claim.

The new year is here, and with it, the big HR headaches of the first quarter of 2026 are coming into focus. Here are some of the crucial issues we will be covering as the Trump administration enters its second full year.

On Dec. 11, President Trump signed an executive order on artificial intelligence aimed at promoting the United States as a global leader in AI development. Almost immediately after, New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed legislation that will establish new state rules on the development of AI models.

Can you please go over the fitness-for-duty process for employees returning from FMLA leave? We want to make sure our employees are ready and able to perform all their essential functions again after their FMLA time off.

Agencies like the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission are investigating fewer disparate-impact claims and scaling back lawsuits. That’s causing a backlash among state anti-discrimination agencies, which believe the disparate-impact liability theory is an important anti-discrimination tool. One state, New Jersey, has now taken action to preserve the ability to bring such lawsuits.

New York employers can no longer request or use an applicant’s consumer credit history—including credit reports, credit scores or information directly obtained from candidates about their debts, bankruptcies, judgments or liens. The law makes it discriminatory to use this information when making decisions about hiring, compensation or employment terms.

Nothing says Happy New Year better than a raft of opinion letters from the Department of Labor. The letters cover the Fair Labor Standards Act and the Family and Medical Leave Act.

I am an HR manager at a big nursery with hundreds of greenhouses, and we provide our employees with portable toilets. It was brought to my attention by the cleaner that he found a cut-up soda can and a syringe in one of the potties. I have never encountered any drug use at our nursery, and I am not sure how I can handle this situation.

When deciding whether discipline was biased, courts often seek to compare workers who have the same supervisor, not just those who have the same job. That’s because discrimination is often manifested by individual acts, not a systemic, organization-wide problem. That makes it important to track discipline by supervisor.

Some managers continue to hold outdated views on pregnancy and the capacity for a woman to work while awaiting the birth of her child. Being vocal about these views—and especially acting on them—is almost certain to provoke a lawsuit.