Kentucky Employment Lawyer Blog

Kentucky Discrimination Attorneys are anxious to hear the US Supreme Court decision in the case Thompson v. North American Stainless.The Court agreed on June 29, 2010, to hear the case. While it will not be argued until the fall, the case will take a critical look at whether employers can legally retaliate against a complainant's family members when an employee reports illegal discrimination or harassment in the workplace.

In the Thompson case, both Mr. Thompson and his finance, Miriam Regalado, worked for North American Stainless. Mr. Thompson had worked for the company for over six years, and it was known throughout the company that they were dating. Ms. Regalado complained of workplace gender discrimination to the EEOC. A few weeks later, Mr. Thompson was terminated.

Continue reading "Kentucky Case to Be Heard by US Supreme Court" »

Last week, the United Supreme Court did something unusual: they all agreed that text messages on pagers issued to government employees can be searched as long as the government's acts are reasonable and motivated by a legitimate work-related purpose. See Ontario v. Quon, 560 U.S. __ (2010).

Typically, employees in the private sector have a very low expectation of privacy. Public employees, however, are protected by the 4th Amendment which prohibits "unreasonable searches and seizures." This rule has been extended to include not just criminal investigations but also other actions taken by governments including investigations into their own employees. Treasury Employees v. Von Raab, 489 U.S. 656,665 (1989).

In Ontario v. Quon, employees were issued pagers with text messaging capabilities. The government was charged overages when employees used exceeded a particular character allotment on the text messages. For several months Quon, an employee issued a pager, exceeded the character allotment and personally paid the overage. His supervisors, wanting to assure that the overages were not being caused by work related text messages, reviewed a sample of texts that Quon made during work hours. Unfortunately, Quon sent some sexually explicit texts which resulted in discipline.

Continue reading "United States Supreme Court Reviews Privacy In the Workplace" »

The Department of Justice (DOJ) filed suit against Harrison County Indiana Sheriff ,G. Michael Deatrick, under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act after the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) found probable cause that Sheriff Deatrick sexually harassed, created a hostile work environment and retaliated against two female employees of Harrison County.

Under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act an employer is prohibited from discriminating against an employee on the basis of race, sex, religion, national origin and age. Also an employer is prohibited from retaliating against an employee for availing themselves of the protections afforded by Title VII.

The two female employees, Deanna Decker and Melissa Graham, sued Sheriff Deatrick and Harrison County, Indiana in 2008 for a violation of their civil rights under 42 U.S.C. 1983. The two female employees are represented by Charles W. Miller of Miller & Falkner.

To see more information regarding the Department of Justice lawsuit please visit:

Wlky.com: Judge Rules DOJ Lawsuit Against Sheriff May Proceed

The Corydon Democrat: Feds File Suit Against Deatrick, County

The Chicago Tribune: Feds say Harrison Co. sheriff harassed 2 workers