News from California....

ASSEMBLY NARROWLY OK's COMPREHENSIVE CIVIL RIGHTS LEGISLATION

By Jerry Gillam
Times Staff Writer
(From the Los Angeles Times, Page A3, Thursday, May 28, 1992)

     SACRAMENTO--Without a vote to spare, the Assembly on Wednesday pad 
a comprehensive civil by Democratic e said would give California the 
toughest anti-discrimination laws in the nation.

     A 41-33 vote sent the legislation to a questionable fate in the 
Senate.  Forty-one Democrats voted for the civil rights bill; no 
Republicans supported it.  Thirty Republicans and three Democrats voted 
against it.

     Among other things, the measure would outlaw job discrimination 
against gays and lesbians,  restore the authority of the Fair Employment 
and Housing Commission to award relief to discrimination victims, forbid 
discrimination against disabled people and prohibit employers from 
requiring employees to only speak English in the workplace.

     In addition, it would overturn four recent state Supreme Court 
decisions, including rulings that took away the authority of the housing 
commission to grant damages for pain and suffering in sexual harassment 
cases and restricted the rights of families denied housing because they 
could not show proof of minimum income.

     Although the legislation, which was drawn up before the Los Angeles 
riots, would have no direct bearing on conditions that gave rise to the 
unrest after the verdicts in the Rodney G. King case, the Speaker said 
it would give hope to minorities who suffered in the rioting.

     [Note from Bryan:  This is Assembly Bill 3825.]

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Bryan  J. Blumberg, The MacNeal-Schwendler Corporation
815 Colorado Boulevard, Los Angeles, California  90041-1777
(213) 259-4914, [email-masked]