©2026 Seyfarth Shaw LLP EEOC-INITIATED LITIGATION: 2026 EDITION | 14 employment discrimination protections”—which the EEOC treats as including “temporary workers.” 35 Accordingly, one of the EEOC’s priorities is “eliminating barriers in recruitments and hiring” in areas relevant to staffing, including the following: • limiting employees to temporary work when qualified for available permanent positions; • limiting access to temp-to-hire positions or other job training or advancement opportunities; • channeling, steering, or segregating individuals into specific jobs or job duties by protected group; • use of automated systems to target job advertisements, recruit applicants, or make or assist in hiring decisions where such systems intentionally exclude or adversely impact protected groups; • job advertisements that exclude or discourage certain demographic groups from applying; • restrictive application processes or systems, including online systems that are difficult for individuals with disabilities or other protected groups to access; and • screening tools or requirements that disproportionately impact workers based on protected status, including those using AI/automated systems, pre-employment tests, and background checks. In FY 2025, the EEOC filed several suits related to temporary work arrangements, sometimes against a staffing agency and sometimes also against the businesses that engage staffing agencies for temporary labor. In one such case, a staffing agency allegedly failed to hire females or refer them for employment. According to the EEOC, one of the agency’s clients requested male laborers only for their facility, and the agency complied with the client’s request. 36 In another case, a staffing agency and a business at which the agency placed temporary employees discharged individuals because of their pregnancies.37 8. Amicus Briefs and Other Noteworthy Filings In many years, the EEOC spends significant resources filing amicus briefs, particularly in courts of appeals, to advance and shape the law. Before filing, an amicus brief first must be approved by a majority of Commissioners, but as described elsewhere in this book the EEOC lacked a quorum of Commissioners for most of the prior year. As a consequence, the EEOC approved and filed Amicus Briefs in only 15 cases during FY 2025. The filings were made almost exclusively in federal appellate courts, and in one instance with the United States Supreme Court. Though the filings were approved before the change in administration, they nonetheless provide insights into the enforcement priorities of the current leadership. As a Commissioner, Lucas voted against filing briefs. that involved issues related to gender identity or expression, consistent with her assertions that sex is binary and immutable. These included cases that involved a gay woman alleging religiously motivated sex discrimination, a gender-nonconforming lesbian challenging a mandatory arbitration agreement, and a transgender woman alleging sex discrimination over denial of health coverage for gender-affirming surgery. On the other hand, Lucas joined the other Commissioners to approve amicus briefs in all other sex-based discrimination claims. Lucas also was aligned with the other Commissioners that majority-group discrimination claims should not be subject to stricter evidentiary standards than those applied in minority-group discrimination claims. The following is a summary of the EEOC’s Amicus Brief filings in FY 2025. Now that the EEOC’s quorum has been restored following the U.S. Senate’s confirmation of Brittany Panuccio’s nomination on October 7, 2025, and with a 2-1 Republican majority, we anticipate amicus group filings to increase. 35 See U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Strategic Enforcement Plan FY 2024-2028, Strategic Enforcement Plan Fiscal Years 20242028 | U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (eeoc.gov). 36 EEOC v. WorkSmart Staffing, LLC, 4:25-cv-01659 (N.D. Ala. Sept. 29, 2025). 37 EEOC v. TEG Staffing, Inc. et al., No. 2:25-cv-09314 (C.D. Cal. Sept. 29, 2025).
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