NO DEI roles or departmentsNO DEI references in training materialsNO demographic hiring goalsNO supplier diversity benchmarksNO scholarships or internships targeted at underrepresented groupsNO diversity-focused recognition surveys.NO mention of “diversity, equity, or inclusion” on its website or in recruiting materialsNO mention of “diversity, equity, or inclusion” in recruiting materials
"Eat s--- 51st state anti-semite loser. Israel now and forever. Until every last Hamas rat is eliminated."
"This is what you supported during your Paid Leave with others at the Women's MARCH in DC… You truly are Despicable in so many ways."
That's one of several messages Charlene Carter, a Southwest Airlines flight attendant, sent to her union president—this one accompanied by a graphic photo of an aborted fetus.
Southwest fired Carter for violating its Workplace Bullying and Hazing Policy and Social Media Policy. Carter sued, claiming religious discrimination—that she sent those messages because the union's support of "women’s rights" conflicted with her religious beliefs about abortion.
For a glorious 90 minutes last Wednesday night, my kids and I forgot all of our worries and bonded with 2,000 like-minded souls over the music of Mr. Jack White.
I love the music of Jack White. I fell in love with a band at Cleveland's Beachland Ballroom on August 10, 2001. The White Stripes were playing that night. I didn't know much about them before that concert. I had heard about some up and coming band, brother/sister (maybe) duo. I went to the Beachland to check them out. I was hooked by the opening chord from Jack's guitar and enraptured by the end of their set. I couldn't find any video online from that show, but I did find a complete recording of a show they did in London just four days earlier.
I've since passed that love on to my children, which brought us front and center at Cleveland's Agora last Wednesday night. You can hear all about it on this week's installment of The Norah and Dad Show (with special guest, Donovan) — available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube, Overcast, your web browser, and everywhere else you get your podcasts.
While you're checking out things I recorded this week, also check out my appearance on Backstage Pass: The HR Rock Star Podcast.
Here's what I read this week that you should read, too.
"My Administration will not tolerate … unlawful conduct targeting Christians.…My Administration will ensure that any unlawful and improper conduct, policies, or practices that target Christians are identified, terminated, and rectified."
That's the key takeaway from Trump's Executive Order on Eradicating Anti-Christian Bias.
What does that look like in practice? According to Politico, the State Department has ordered employees "to report on any instances of coworkers displaying 'anti-Christian bias.'" The internal memo allows (but doesn't require) anonymous reporting and encourages submissions to be "as detailed as possible, including names, dates, [and] locations (e.g., post or domestic office where the incident occurred)."
If you are a fan of rock 'n' roll and have the chance to see Jack White live, just do it. Hard stop. It was an amazing night from start to finish. More next week, as it will be the focus of the next episode of The Norah and Dad Show.
Here's what I read this week that you should read, too.
This case started with a pair of Skechers, and will end with a jury trial.
A cocktail server at MGM National Harbor, Rebecca Lopez-Duprey, suffered from foot conditions—Achilles tendonitis and Equinus deformity—that made wearing heels painful and medically inadvisable. Her doctor recommended she wear flat, supportive shoes. Eventually, MGM granted her an ADA accommodation to do just that.
Lopez-Duprey wore Skechers-style black shoes for over two years without issue. Then came a policy change.
In late 2021, MGM issued a memo updating the dress code and specifying which shoes were allowed, even for employees with ADA accommodations. Skechers weren't on the approved list. The company disciplined Lopez-Duprey multiple times, including once for showing up to work in her doctor-recommended sneaker. She protested internally, and her doctor even submitted another note, this time stating she needed those shoes permanently.
MGM terminated her shortly thereafter for violating its appearance standards.
Lopez-Duprey sued for failure to accommodate under the ADA.
And what did it cost them? Seventy-five grand.
ChatGPT continues to amaze me with what it can do. Last week, I asked it to write a parody of "Green Eggs & Ham" about tariffs. You can read that story — called This Tariff Sham — over on LinkedIn.
This week, I decided to take it a step further: "Can you write a story in the style of Dr. Seuss's 'The Cat in the Hat' about the rise of authoritarianism in the United States and the increasing threat to the rule of law posed by the current Trump administration?" Then, I asked it to illustrate the results in a complete children's book. The results? Simply stunning. Read the story below, or download the fully illustrated book here.
* * *
The Man in the Red Tie
A Cautionary Tale in the Style of Dr. Seuss
The sun wasn't sunny. The news made us frown.
The Rule of Law seemed to be sliding down.
We sat in our house. We felt anxious and stuck.
We read every tweet and just whispered, "Oh… yuck."
Then THUMP!
Something boomed like a cannonball blast.
We turned to the screen — and he strode in fast.
He wore a red tie, too long and too wide,
With a smirk on his face and a puffed-out pride.
"I am the Man!" he said with a grin.
"I'll make us all great by just keeping me in!"
He stomped and he shouted, he pouted and screamed.
He flattered the rich and he schemed while they beamed.
He scolded the courts, he mocked every norm,
He said, "I alone will reform the reform!"
He fired the watchdogs who'd barked at his lies.
He said, "Loyal dogs are the very best guys."
He told folks in uniforms, "Do what you must.
If I tell you it's legal, then you know it’s just."
He roared at the press and he called them "fake."
He branded all truth as a liberal mistake.
He built up a wall, not just out of brick—
But out of division, and anger, and schtick.
He courted the chaos, the proud and the cruel.
He said, "I don't care — I make the rule!"
And some folks just cheered, "He tells it like so!"
(Though what "so" was… they weren't sure they'd know.)
But the skies grew darker, the air full of dread,
As the books stayed closed and the laws grew dead.
Then came the Day — the one we all feared.
The vote loomed large, and the stakes had cleared.
Would the people still matter? Would ballots be true?
Would justice be blind, or just red, white, and blue?
Then YOU stood up tall — yes, you, in that chair!
You said, "This is still our Republic to care!"
"The law is not his — it belongs to us all.
It's strong when we stand, and weak when we fall."
You voted. You marched. You wrote and you spoke.
You called out each lie. You challenged each joke.
And maybe, just maybe, the tide turned again—
The Rule of Law held, with paper and pen.
Now kids, let me tell you — remember this day.
Democracy isn't just kept safe by what we say.
It's guarded by people who act when things tilt,
Who patch up the cracks before freedoms wilt.
So the next time a man comes to town with a grin,
And says, "I alone can make your side win,"—
Say, "Thanks, but no thanks. We've read this old plot.
We're the People. We matter. Like it or not."
Here's what I read this week that you should read, too.
Charles Carroll worked as a high-ranking exec at IDEMIA, the company behind TSA PreCheck. He ran a new initiative called "Trusted Fan" and was involved in renewing a major TSA contract.
He was also in his 60s and had recently been diagnosed with prostate cancer.
A year after disclosing his diagnosis, and after delivering the TSA contract renewal, he was fired. The company said it was due to performance issues: lack of leadership, mishandling the Trusted Fan rollout, and frustrations around the contract renewal process.
The Sixth Circuit upheld summary judgment for the employer across the board, including on Carroll's disability and age discrimination. Why? One word: documentation.
That's not how this works. That’s not how any of this works.
We can't cherry-pick the Constitution based on who we like or what someone's accused of doing. Once we start deciding who "deserves" due process, we're no longer a nation of laws—we're an authoritarian regime of vibes and vengeance.
Due process is what makes our system fair. It's what makes us America. If that's controversial, we've got problems bigger than politics.
Here's what I read this week that you should read, too.
"[The chief's] actions not only fail to meet the standards of professional conduct but also appear intended to humiliate me and other victims." That's according to a North Bergen, NJ, police officer speaking to People Magazine about his boss, Police Chief Robert Farley.
"Failing to meet the standards of professional conduct" might be understatement of the year. Farley is accused of horrific and unacceptable behavior.
I've been seeing that sentiment a lot lately in the comments on my posts about what's happening to our country.
And I get it. Politics for the sake of politics probably belongs on other platforms. But in today's interconnected world, the lines between politics, society, and business are more blurred than ever. This isn't politics for the sake of politics. This is about defending the democratic foundations that underpin a functioning society—one in which businesses can operate with stability, the rule of law is respected, and lawyers and law firms can serve clients within a system that values justice, accountability, and fairness.
Take, for example, the latest report from the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) project, which concludes that the U.S. is on the verge of losing its status as a democracy. If current trends continue, we could soon find ourselves grouped with countries like Hungary, India, and Turkey—nations that still technically hold elections, but where the outcomes are about as surprising as the ending of a Hallmark Christmas movie.
For those unfamiliar, V-Dem is one of the leading global democracy trackers. It measures things like election integrity, press freedom, and judicial independence. Their latest report places the U.S. firmly in the "trending poorly" category. We're sliding away from being a true democracy and rapidly approaching what experts call "electoral autocracy"—a polite way of saying the system still exists, but it's rigged enough that those in power don't have to worry too much about losing.
According to V-Dem, we're already deep into democratic decline. Trump has expanded presidential power by pardoning Capitol rioters and installing loyalists in key positions, undermined democratic institutions by targeting independent agencies and the press, and aligned with autocratic tendencies by distancing us from our traditional allies and global democratic norms.
If we don't pull the emergency brake soon (as in, within the next six months), we may end up looking back on this moment the way people felt watching the final episode of Game of Thrones—realizing too late that the good days were already behind us.
This isn't a left vs. right issue. It's not about partisanship. And it's not about politics. It's about democracy.
And for professionals on a platform like LinkedIn, these conversations aren't just acceptable, they're essential. The health of our democracy directly affects my business—lawyering. As a lawyer who works within—and deeply values—the rule of law, these issues are not abstract. They impact my business, my clients, and the systems on which I rely every day.
That's why I write about them. And it's why I'll keep doing it no matter how many people slide into my comments to tell me, "Politics don't belong on LinkedIn."
Here's what I read this week that you should read, too.
An editor at The Atlantic was accidentally added to a high-level Signal group chat where Trump administration officials were planning military strikes in Yemen.
Yes, you read that right. A journalist, in a chat with top government officials, while they were actively discussing where and when to launch missiles.
It's an appalling breach of national security. It’s also a teachable moment for employers.
If the highest of federal officials can accidentally include a reporter in a thread outlining imminent military action, your company's employees can accidentally include the wrong person in a message about a client, a deal, a product launch, or a sensitive HR issue.
"Could the President decide that he wasn't going to appoint or allow to remain in office any heads of agencies over 40 years old?"
"I think that that would be within the President’s constitutional authority under the removal power."
That exchange took place earlier this week between Judge Karen Henderson, a Reagan appointee to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, and Deputy Assistant Attorney General Eric McArthur during proceedings over the termination of board members from two independent federal agencies, the National Labor Relations Board and the Merit Systems Protection Board.
The claim that Trump has the constitutional authority to fire employees based on their age is appalling on its own. The Age Discrimination in Employment Act, which protects employees 40 and older, has plenty to say about that claim.
Even more disturbing, however, are the broader implications of the government's argument. Replace "over 40" with "Black," "female," "gay," "lesbian," "transgender," "Muslim," "Jewish," "disabled," or any other protected class. By McArthur's reasoning, those terminations would be just as lawful under Trump's "constitutional removal power." The government is arguing that Trump has the constitutional authority to remake the federal workforce into one only comprised of while, male, cisgender, under 40, non-disabled, Christians.
That argument isn't just legally dubious—it's a direct attack on the principles of equal opportunity and non-discrimination that underpin our society and our democracy. If accepted, it would open the door to a federal workforce shaped entirely by a President's personal biases, rather than merit, experience, or the law. The Constitution does not grant any President unchecked power to purge employees based on protected characteristics. This isn't about removal authority. It's about whether the rule of law still applies, even when the President finds it inconvenient to his agenda.
Here's what I read this week that you should read, too.
What is "DEI-related discrimination at work?" No one knows, including the EEOC.
Late yesterday, the EEOC released two new policy documents aimed at eliminating "unlawful DEI" in the workplace: What You Should Know About DEI-Related Discrimination at Work and What To Do If You Experience Discrimination Related to DEI at Work (the latter even available as a poster-sized PDF).
The most revealing line appears in the opening sentence of the "What You Should Know" document:
"Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) is a broad term that is not defined in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964."
Of course it's undefined, because DEI is not illegal.
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| Image via wiki commons, cc license |
