Louisiana

Monday night, Governor Jindal of Louisiana signed the Louisiana Equal Pay for Women Act into law, an important step forward toward achieving equal pay for the women of Louisiana. 

The Act resembles the federal Equal Pay Act. It bans discriminatory pay based on sex, with exceptions for differences bases on seniority systems, merit systems, and systems that measure earnings by quantity or quality of production. It also provides an exception for differences based on "a bona fide factor other than sex," with clear requirements that the employer must show that the factor is related to the job and that there are no alternative practices that would serve the same business purpose. By limiting the "bona fide factor other than sex" defense, the Louisiana Act avoids creating potential loopholes for employers to assert defenses so broad that they may themselves be based on sex (such as prior salary history or stronger salary negotiation skills).  Read more »

Yesterday, Srikanth Srinivasan became the first South Asian judge confirmed to a federal court of appeals. In addition, President Obama has recently made some groundbreaking nominations. Last week, after Shelly Dick was the first woman confirmed to the Middle District of Louisiana, President Obama nominated Carolyn McHugh, who would be the first woman from Utah to sit on the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, Elizabeth Wolford, who would be the first woman to sit on the Western District of New York, Pamela Reeves, who would be the first women to sit on the Eastern District of Tennessee, and Debra Brown, nominated to the Northern District of Mississippi, who would be the first African-American woman to serve as a federal judge in Mississippi. Yesterday as well, President Obama nominated Landya B. McCafferty, who if confirmed would be the first woman judge on the U.S. District Court in New Hampshire, and Susan P. Watters, who if confirmed would be the first woman judge on the U.S. District Court in Montana.  Read more »

Think that school policies that shun pregnant students and push them out of school are a thing of the past?

Think again.

A public charter school in Delhi, Louisiana says that students who they “suspect of being pregnant” must submit to a pregnancy test. And, according to their written policy, “if the test indicates that the student is pregnant, the student will not be permitted to attend classes…” As we outlined in our report, A Pregnancy Test for Schools, policies like the Louisiana one clearly violate the U.S. Constitution and Title IX, the federal law that bars sex discrimination in schools.

Earlier this week, the ACLU sent the school a letter demanding that the school immediately end the practice of forced pregnancy tests and stop excluding pregnant students. There is also a petition asking the school to remove the discriminatory policy. Read more »

On Wednesday, the Senate voted to confirm two more judicial nominees and increased the number of female district court judges serving on the federal bench. Miranda Du was confirmed 59-39 to a seat on the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada, and Susie Morgan was confirmed 96-1 to serve on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.

Du is the first Asian Pacific American to serve as an Article III judge in Nevada. Her family fled Vietnam when she was nine years old and settled in the United States. Du achieved a successful civil litigation career, becoming one of the Mountain States Rising Stars in 2009 and a partner at her firm, McDonald Carano Wilson. She is a symbol of the American success story for many and is a part of the growing Asian Pacific American population in Nevada, now 9 percent of the state’s population. Read more »