A federal appeals court has ruled that an employee may not sue her employer for retaliation after the company failed to investigate her original discrimination claim. Failure to investigate in such instances does not constitute an adverse employment action, ruled the court.

In a case recently filed in federal court, a company claims that former employees violated their noncompete agreements by communicating with the company’s current contract employees via LinkedIn (.pdf). The case could have important ramifications for how employees use social media networking sites.

A police department did not violate the constitutional rights of police officers (.pdf) when it read through their text messages, ruled the Supreme Court. The review of the text messages did not violate the Fourth Amendment, according to the ruling, because it was undertaken for work-related purposes and was not excessive in scope.

More than a quarter of the staff at schools and colleges have to deal with physical violence from students, according to a survey by the Association for Teachers and Lecturers in the United Kingdom. Read the full report for more findings.

The National Biosurveillance Integration Center was envisioned as a fusion hub for intelligence on biological threats, but the U.S. Government Accountability Office finds common obstacles (.pdf)—technology and bureaucracy—have hindered its progress.

DHS has commissioned the development of standards that will allow interoperability between security scanning products regardless of manufacturer. Read about the process, which is being coordinated by NEMA, the association of electrical and medical imaging equipment manufacturers.

The U.S. Supreme Court has ordered a lower court to reexamine Chicago’s handgun ban (.pdf). The Court did not rule on the constitutionality of the ban, but it did stress that owning firearms is a “fundamental” right.

Oregon’s disability laws do not shield employees who use illegal drugs, including medical marijuana, and employers don’t need to accommodate such use, ruled the Oregon Supreme Court. In a case brought by a worker who was fired after his employer learned of his medical marijuana use, the court noted that the state must yield to federal law in this instance even though the use of the drug is legal for medical purposes in Oregon.

The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed a bill that would have the Transportation Security Administration integrate a registered traveler program (.pdf) (with private background checks) into airport security procedures.

The Court ruled that a lower court must reexamine the fraud conviction of former Enron executive Jeffrey Skilling.

The Court has ruled that a law prohibiting “material support” to terrorist organizations is constitutional and that it is permissible to ban any support to such groups—including humanitarian support—because all support is tantamount to promoting terrorism.

The Court has upheld most of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, enacted in response to the accounting scandals at Enron and other companies. However, the Court did overturn part of the law that required that members of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, established to monitor accounting firms, be fired only for “cause.” The Court said that the board members may be fired at will.

The House Financial Services Committee’s Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit held a hearing to consider H.R. 3149 (.pdf), which would amend the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) to prohibit a current or prospective employer from using credit reports to make employment decisions such as hiring, firing, or promotion. Witnesses who spoke in support of the rights of employers to use such reports argued that the information is not used in a vacuum but is among the many tools companies use to make good hiring decisions. Opponents contended that credit scores are often inaccurate and have not been conclusively linked to inappropriate workplace behaviors, such as theft.

A bill (S. 1684) that would require that local law enforcement collect information on convicted arsonists and bombers similar to that currently collected on sex offenders has been approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

A bill (H.R. 3360) that would enhance security aboard cruise ships has been approved by the Senate. Because of discrepancies between the House and Senate versions of the bill, the differences must be reconciled in conference committee.

A bill (H.R. 1258) would make it illegal to cause any caller ID service to transmit misleading or inaccurate caller identification, known as “spoofing,” with intent to defraud or deceive. The bill has been approved by the House of Representatives. The Senate has announced that it will consider the bill.

A bill (S. 3249) that would renew a grant program designed to help state and local governments prepare for disasters has been approved by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. To proceed, the measure must now be taken up by the full Senate.

A new Alabama law (formerly H.B. 37) will allow the state superintendent of education to revoke the teaching certificate of any teacher convicted of felony sex offenses or sexual abuse of a child. Under the law, if such a conviction is overturned, the certificate will be reinstated and the local board of education may choose to return the teacher to his or her previous position. Even if the teacher is not rehired, he or she will receive back pay and benefits.

Oklahoma’s governor has vetoed a bill (H.B. 2569) that would have prohibited the use of RFID technology in state drivers’ licenses or state identification cards. The bill would have outlawed RFID tags as well as “any type of RFID ink in any format or configuration.”

In litigation between an insurance company and its former agents, the company claimed that agents misappropriated trade secrets when they used print-outs from the electronic files of insurance policyholders in their search for other jobs. However, the court found that because the same information from the password-protected electronic files was readily available in another format, unsecured physical files stored in the agents’ offices, it cannot be considered a protected trade secret. (Nationwide Mutual Insurance v. Mortensen et al, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, No. 08-5214-cv, 2010)