{"id":229711,"date":"2026-03-31T14:48:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T18:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/31\/the-illinois-genetic-information-privacy-act-and-a-case-of-no-harm-no-foul-constangy-brooks-smith-prophete-llp\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T15:30:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T19:30:13","slug":"the-illinois-genetic-information-privacy-act-and-a-case-of-no-harm-no-foul-constangy-brooks-smith-prophete-llp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/31\/the-illinois-genetic-information-privacy-act-and-a-case-of-no-harm-no-foul-constangy-brooks-smith-prophete-llp\/","title":{"rendered":"The Illinois Genetic Information Privacy Act and a case of no harm, no foul | Constangy, Brooks, Smith & Prophete, LLP"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Illinois Genetic Information Privacy Act and a case of no harm, no foul | Constangy, Brooks, Smith & Prophete, LLP<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.jdsupra.com\/legalnews\/the-illinois-genetic-information-9716230\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-03-31 14:48:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: www.jdsupra.com<\/a><\/p>\n

A recent decision from a federal court in Illinois provides a detailed look at how courts are handling claims under the state\u2019s Genetic Information Privacy Act. The case also demonstrates that not every improper question will necessarily lead to liability.<\/p>\n

GIPA regulates how employers can collect, use, and disseminate genetic information, and it gives employees and applicants the right to sue if the rules are violated. Generally, employers cannot request or require \u201cgenetic information\u201d when making hiring or employment decisions. Genetic information includes family medical history.<\/p>\n

Daniel Henry v. AbbVie, Inc.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Daniel Henry applied for a position with a staffing agency that contracted with the employer. The company required some employees and contractors (depending on position) to complete medical examinations after receiving an offer and before starting work. The company used third-party providers to conduct the medical examinations and did not supply those providers with any questions to be asked. However, workers were specifically advised by the company that they should not provide any genetic information, including family medical history, when responding to the questionnaire.<\/p>\n

Mr. Henry alleged that, during his examination, a nurse asked him questions about his family medical history of cancer, hepatitis, and heart disease. (The nurse denied asking these questions.) He was also provided a questionnaire that asked about his reproductive history, such as children with birth defects and pregnancy outcomes, but he did not answer any of those questions. After completing the medical examination, he worked at the company for approximately four months, when his employment was terminated four months later for reasons unrelated to the medical examination.<\/p>\n

He sued, alleging that the company violated GIPA because it requested genetic information as part of a pre-employment application.<\/p>\n

The company moved for summary judgment and argued that it could not be…<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Illinois Genetic Information Privacy Act and a case of no harm, no foul |…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":229712,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/jdsupra-static.s3.amazonaws.com\/profile-images\/og.9985_1458.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-229711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-privacy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229711"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229711"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229711\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":229713,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229711\/revisions\/229713"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}