You’re Not Hired! President Trump Imposes Executive Agency Hiring Freeze
Client Alert | 1 min read | 01.24.17
On January 23, 2017, President Trump issued a memorandum imposing a freeze, which prohibits all executive agencies from hiring federal civilian employees to fill positions that were vacant as of noon on January 22, 2017 or creating new positions. Though agencies are forbidden from “[c]ontracting outside the government to circumvent” this prohibition, some exemptions exist, namely for military personnel, for positions that executive agency and department heads deem “necessary to meet national security or public safety responsibilities[,]” and as the Office of Personnel Management Director determines are “otherwise necessary.” Per the memorandum, the freeze is scheduled to expire upon implementation of a long-term Office of Management and Budget (OMB) plan “to reduce the size of the Federal Government’s workforce through attrition[,]” which OMB must recommend within 90 days of the memorandum’s date.
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Client Alert | 3 min read | 06.12.26
DOJ Guidance Backs Away From Disparate Impact Liability
On June 9, 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a formal opinion concluding that the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission’s (EEOC) existing interpretations of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII) disparate-impact liability, including the Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures (UGESP), are unconstitutional. According to the opinion, EEOC’s prior interpretations contemplate liability based on disproportionately adverse effects alone, without regard to an employer’s likely intent, rather than treating disparate impact as an evidentiary mechanism to “smoke out” intentional discrimination. DOJ found that this approach functions as a “qualified racial-proportionality mandate” that places “a racial thumb on the scales, often requiring employers to evaluate the racial outcomes of their policies, and to make decisions based on (because of) those racial outcomes.” The opinion fulfills one mandate of Executive Order 14281, which rejected disparate-impact liability insofar as it “creates a near insurmountable presumption that unlawful discrimination exists wherever there are any differences in outcomes among different [demographic groups].”
Client Alert | 4 min read | 06.12.26
Auto Dealers: The FTC Is Back in the Driver’s Seat — Warning Letters Signal Renewed Federal Scrutiny
Client Alert | 13 min read | 06.12.26
Client Alert | 4 min read | 06.12.26
