The Local Civil Rights Restoration Act (Local Law 85 of 2005) 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. The bill -- known as "Intro 22" as it wended its way through the Council -- 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.
As Gale Brewer, the law's prime sponsor, stated, the Restoration Act "clearly sets out the principle that judges need to interpret our law consistent with the intention that protections are to be construed expansively and exemptions narrowly, and always with a view toward achieving the uniquely powerful remedial and deterrent purposes of the law. Judges, for example, will need to revisit the current rule in sexual harassment cases that kicks¥ victims out of court because they haven't been harassed enough."
Read the full text of the bill.
Read the Anti-Discrimination Center's Remarks at the Bill Signing Press Conference.
Read the Anti-Discrimination Center's Remarks at the Bill Passage Press Conference.
Read the Center’s April 14 testimony.
Read the Association of the Bar's letter of support.
Read the Brennan Center’s analysis of the importance of the bill.
The Restoration Act was a product of a coalition of more than 40 civil rights and allied organizations.
Local Law 39 of 1991 was a comprehensive set of amendments to the New York City Human Rights Law. The amendments maximize both individual and vicarious responsibility for discriminatory conduct, and substantially expand the reach of the law, the tools for enforcing it, and the penalties for violating it.
Unfortunately, despite the express command of the legislative history to interpret the law independently from state and federal civil rights enactments, the injunction to construe the statute liberally to accomplish its purposes, and the requirement that state and local court decisions that had failed to do so were to be ignored, insufficient attention has been paid to the distinctive features of the City’s Human Rights Law as it was amended by Local Law 39.
For the first time, the necessary “raw materials” have been gathered to facilitate an informed analysis of the meaning of the law.
Text
The full text of Local Law 39 of 1991 showing the changes from then-existing law
Committee Report
The Committee Report that accompanied the bill
Mayor's Statement
The remarks by then-Mayor Dinkins at a public hearing prior to his signing the bill
Comparison Memo
A comparison memorandum included in the New York Legislative Annual of 1991, which memorandum features some of the notable changes brought about by Local Law 39 of 1991