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Local Civil Rights Restoration Act (Intro 22-A) |
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Written by Tracey_Keij_Denton
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Tuesday, 19 July 2005 |
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UPDATE!
The City Council's General Welfare Committee has unanimously approved Intro 22-A (the Local Civil Rights Restorations Act). The bill now has 39 sponsors including Speaker Miller, a "veto-proof majority." It is scheduled to pass at the September 15th Council meeting
View the list of sposors.
If your councilmember is on the list, please write to them and thank them for their support.
DFNYC has endorsed Intro 22 by a unanimous vote.
Intro 22, the Local Civil Rights Restoration Act, is currently pending in the New York City Council. If passed, Intro 22 will restore principles and strength to our local NYC Human Rights Law.
The Good News: New York City has a tradition of protecting human rights, and our human rights laws are stronger and broader then those at the state and federal level. For example, in 1958, our human rights law was the first in the nation to protect individuals from discrimination in private housing. In 1986, we outlawed discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, a human right that the state goverment did not recognize until 2003 and that the federal government still does not recognize. While the Bush administration and conservatives have taken our federal and state laws in a dangerous direction, New York City continues to have vigorous human rights laws here at the local level.
The Bad News: Our New York City human rights laws are being interpreted by federal and state judges using definitions and legal approaches from federal and state cases. Our New York City human rights laws should be judged on their own merits and interpreted in accordance with the City's intentions. By importing legal approaches from more conservative judicial opinions on more conservative laws, judges are weakening our local human rights laws. For example, all New Yorkers should be free from harassment in stores, restaurants and other public places. Unfortunately, judges effectively prevented New York City's human rights law from preventing such harassment unless it includes monetary damages to the victim. The requirement of monetary damages is not included in our local human rights law, and this outside interpretation makes it difficult for victims of harassment to bring cases and easier for the perpetrators of harassment to avoid punishment.
A Proposed Solution: The Local Civil Rights Restoration Act (Intro 22) seeks to protect the vigor and independence of the City's Human Rights Law against the attacks of an increasingly conservative state and federal judiciary. It is a bill that simultaneously sends a strong message about the City's commitment to the preservation of civil rights and takes practical and concrete steps to improve the efficacy of civil rights enforcement.
More Information: To read more about Intro 22, please visit www.antibiaslaw.com, a project of the Anti-Discrimiation Center of Metro New York, Inc. Also, the Brennan Center has signed on to Intro 22 and has a great memorandum explanation - click here to visit their website and find out more.
(legacy node 87131)
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 01 April 2008 )
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