Insights

This promises to be the year that requires businesses to be highly adaptable in meeting staffing needs while supporting employees with school-age children. In today’s press conference, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced schools in counties on the County Data Monitoring list may not physically reopen school campuses for in-person instruction this coming fall until certain criteria are met. This mandate is applicable to private and public schools.

In 2015 Congress excluded robocalls to collect government debts from regulation. In Barr v. American Association of Political Consultants, the Supreme Court deemed that exception unconstitutional because it favored certain types of speech.

In Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru, 591 U.S. ___, 2020 WL 3808420 (2020) (“Morrissey-Berru”), the United States Supreme Court provided further guidance on the application of the “ministerial exception,” which provides religious organizations with a defense against generally applicable employment laws in the selection or retention of employees who perform certain tasks involving preaching, teaching, and counseling.

Los Angeles County has been the epicenter of COVID-19 in California, and it is only getting worse. The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (LA Department of Public Health) recently announced that daily hospitalizations have been significantly higher than in past weeks. Accordingly, LA County released new and updated guidance to help stop the spread of COVID-19 within the workplace. The guidance includes more stringent employee screenings, requirements to report a cluster of confirmed COVID-19 cases, updates to LA County Reopening Protocols, and requirements that all employees who have regular contact with others wear a face covering or an alternative, regardless of medical conditions.