Civil Law

Quitting Cold Turkey: Federal Agencies Suspend Enforcement of Back-Pay Requirement for Employee Wellness Incentives, Including Tobacco Cessation Programs (US)

For many employees, the benefits of maintaining a healthy lifestyle aren’t just physical; they are financial. Through health-contingent wellness programs, employers can offer monetary rewards or reduced health insurance costs to employees who achieve specified health-related goals. These programs may focus on nutrition, weight loss, tobacco cessation, fitness, substance abuse assistance, stress management, or general health education.

However, determining what rewards employees are eligible for, and when those rewards must be provided, has long presented a compliance challenge for employers. … Read the rest

Circuit Courts

Funding Shortfalls Adversely Affect Key Judiciary Programs

A shortfall in this year’s congressional appropriations is significantly impacting the Judiciary’s ability to ensure security at courthouses at a time of rising threats to federal judges and impairing efforts to provide critical legal defense services to people who can’t afford to hire lawyers.
Judiciary News – United States Courts… Read the rest

Supreme Court

Funding for Native healthcare programs, and the Armed Career Criminal Act returns

Funding for Native healthcare programs, and the Armed Career Criminal Act returns

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 The Relist Watch column examines cert petitions that the Supreme Court has “relisted” for its upcoming conference. A short explanation of relists is available here.

Since our last installment, the Supreme Court has continued slowly chipping away at the still-sizable number of lingering relists from the end-of-summer “long conference.” The court denied review in five-time relist Johnson v. Prentice, involving an Illinois prisoner’s claim that his nearly three-year term of solitary confinement constituted cruel and unusual … Read the rest