United States: Human Rights

Most people alive today were born after the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. We may be inclined to take for granted that civil rights are so engrained in our society that racial discrimination is only...

Within weeks of each other, US Customs and Border Protection and the European Commission released guidance documents on forced labor import compliance, revealing fundamentally different approaches to enforcement. While CBP emphasizes documentary evidence and supply-chain traceability, the EC focuses on human rights due diligence systems and corporate governance, raising questions about which model will shape the future of global forced labor regulation.

The Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights has launched a Title IX investigation into Smith College's policy of admitting transgender women and providing them access to campus facilities designated for women. This investigation represents a significant shift in federal civil rights enforcement under the Trump Administration's interpretation that Title IX protections are based on biological sex rather than gender identity.

A new interagency agreement between the Department of Education and Department of Justice fundamentally restructures federal civil rights enforcement in educational institutions, shifting from OCR's traditional compliance-focused approach to DOJ's more formal investigative protocols. While substantive civil rights laws remain unchanged, the partnership introduces rigorous investigative methods and reflects the Trump administration's evolving stance on disparate impact liability.

The Supreme Court has significantly narrowed the scope of corporate liability under the Alien Tort Statute, holding that courts cannot create new causes of action beyond three historical violations identified by Blackstone.

The compliance landscape remains active and dominated by varying state approaches to advancing environmental justice (EJ) at the state level.

The United States has historically treated child sexual abuse as aberrational, yet the greatest danger often comes from trusted figures in a child's daily life.

The Sanctions Update is compiled by Steptoe’s International Trade and Regulatory Compliance team and Steptoe’s Strategic Risk team.

The U.S. Department of State's Directorate of Defense Trade Controls has terminated the arms embargo on Ethiopia and ended the policy of denial under ITAR Section 126.1, shifting to case-by-case reviews for defense exports. This significant policy change replaces the presumption of denial that has been in place since 2021, though companies must still maintain rigorous due diligence procedures.