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Highlights A U.S. court of appeals reversed a district court's grant of summary judgment upholding a plan administrator's benefit denial. The court found that the district court erroneously deferred to the plan administrator's determination on the benefits claim, because the plan language granting discretion to the plan administrator was contained in a document that was not disclosed to plan participants. The court further found that because the administrator did not take into consideration the definition [...]

We've all seen the signs - No Shoes, No Shirt, No Service. Their exact origin may be unknown but these signs appear to have come to popularity in the 1960s and 1970s as a response by businesses to keep "long-haired hippies" out of stores and restaurants. Or maybe they were there before that but just got pointed out when Five Man Electrical Band's Signs became a hit in 1971. You've got to have a shirt and tie to [...]

On June 30, 2020, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit held in B.L. v. Mahanoy Area School District, No. 19-18421, that a high school student's off-campus speech was protected by the First Amendment to the same extent an adult's would be. The Third Circuit affirmed in a precedential opinion expressly holding for the first time that off-campus student speech was protected to the full extent afforded by the First Amendment and not subject [...]