Employers are awaiting decisions on some important U.S. Supreme Court cases that will affect aspects of the employment relationship, including diversity initiatives, LGBTQ rights and religious accommodations.

"It's going to be a blockbuster Supreme Court term again," said Jocelyn Samuels, vice chair of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, who spoke Feb. 28 at the SHRM Employment Law & Compliance Conference in Washington, D.C.

For the court, "it was a very slow start to the 2022-23 term," said Joseph Beachboard, an attorney with Beachboard Consulting Group in Los Angeles, who presented Feb. 27 at the conference. So far, the court has issued fewer decisions "than any year in modern history."

The court's most-recent employment-related rulings include:

• Upholding the salary requirement for the overtime exemption under the Fair Labor Standards Act for a highly compensated employee.
• Dismissing its review of a case that would have clarified the scope of the attorney-client privilege, concluding that review of the case was improvidently granted.
  
  In addition, the court recently heard oral arguments in several employment-related cases that haven't been decided yet. Among those are:

• Two cases that will test the future of affirmative action in higher education and diversity programs in the workplace.
• A case examining how to balance anti-discrimination policies with religious freedoms in public accommodations. A website designer sued Colorado over whether she has the...

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