Illinois Enacts Law Banning Racial Discrimination Based on Hairstyle or Hair Texture

On July 1, 2022, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker signed into regulation Senate Invoice (SB) 3616, also referred to as the CROWN Act. The CROWN (“Create a Respectful and Open Office for Pure Hair”) Act (Public Act 102-1102) amends the Illinois Human Rights Act (IHRA) to increase the definition of “race” for the needs of combatting illegal discrimination in Illinois. The CROWN Act will take impact on January 1, 2023.

The CROWN Act expands the IHRA’s definition of “race” to incorporate “traits related to race, together with, however not restricted to, hair texture and protecting hairstyles akin to braids, locks, and twists.” This new definition implies that “[u]nlawful discrimination … in opposition to an individual due to his or her precise or perceived race” pursuant to the IHRA now contains discrimination primarily based on hair texture or coiffure.

Notably, Illinois now joins sixteen different states with CROWN Act legal guidelines, together with California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Louisiana, Maryland, Maine, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Tennessee, Virginia, and Washington. The U.S. Virgin Islands just lately enacted the Virgin Islands Crown Act of 2022. The Alaska Legislature has authorized antidiscrimination laws “relating to decorate codes and pure hairstyles,” though Alaska’s governor has not but signed the measure into regulation; the Massachusetts Legislature can also be contemplating CROWN Act laws. On the federal degree, CROWN Act laws (H.R. 2116) handed the U.S. Home of Representatives in March 2022, and companion laws (S. 888) has been launched within the U.S. Senate.

Illinois employers might wish to evaluation their grooming insurance policies and practices to make sure compliance with the CROWN Act.