BILL NUMBER: AB 1400 INTRODUCED
BILL TEXT
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Laird
(Coauthors: Assembly Members Evans, Goldberg, Hancock, Koretz,
Leno, Levine, Lieber, and Montanez)
(Coauthors: Senators Kehoe, Kuehl, and Migden)
FEBRUARY 22, 2005
An act to amend Sections 51, 51.5, 51.7, 51.8, and 53 of the Civil
Code, relating to civil rights.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 1400, as introduced, Laird. Civil Rights Act.
The Unruh Civil Rights Act generally prohibits business
establishments from discriminating on the basis of sex, race, color,
religion, ancestry, national origin, disability, or medical
condition. The Unruh Civil Rights Act provides civil remedies for
violations of its provisions.
This bill would further prohibit that discrimination on the basis
of familial status, marital status, or sexual orientation, and would
define related terms. The bill would integrate those definitions into
other related provisions, and would provide that the identification
of particular bases of discrimination in those provisions are
illustrative rather than restrictive. The bill would make specified
findings and declarations in that regard.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no.
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. This act shall be known and may be cited as "The Civil
Rights Act of 2005."
SEC. 2. The Legislature finds and declares as follows:(a) Even
prior to passage of the Unruh Civil Rights Act, California law has
afforded broad protection against arbitrary discrimination by
business establishments.
(b) In keeping with that history and the legislative history of
the Unruh Civil Rights Act, California courts have interpreted the
categories enumerated in the act to be illustrative rather than
restrictive. It is the intent of the Legislature that these
enumerated bases shall continue to be construed as illustrative
rather than restrictive.
(c) Notwithstanding the erroneous interpretation of law by one
district California Court of Appeal in Beaty v. Truck Insurance
Exchange (1992) 6 Cal. App. 4th 1455, which incorrectly applied the
California Supreme Court's ruling in Harris v. Capital Growth
Investors XIV (1991) 52 Cal. 3d 1142, and which the California
Supreme Court indicated in Smith v. Fair Employment and Housing
Commission (1996) 12 Cal. 4th 1143, 1160, fn. 11, is not controlling,
the Legislature affirms that the bases of discrimination prohibited
by the Unruh Civil Rights Act include, but are not limited to,
familial status, marital status, and sexual orientation, as defined
herein. By specifically enumerating these bases in the Unruh Civil
Rights Act, the Legislature intends to clarify the existing law,
rather than to change the law, as well as the principle that the
bases enumerated in the act are illustrative rather than restrictive.
SEC. 3. Section 51 of the Civil Code is amended to read:
51. (a) This section shall be known, and may be cited, as the
Unruh Civil Rights Act.(b) All persons within the jurisdiction of
this state are free and equal, and no matter what their sex, race,
color, religion, ancestry, national origin, disability, or
medical condition , familial status, marital status,
or sexual orientation are entitled to the full and equal
accommodations, advantages, facilities, privileges, or services in
all business establishments of every kind whatsoever.
(c) This section shall not be construed to confer any right or
privilege on a person that is conditioned or limited by law or that
is applicable alike to persons of every sex, color, race, religion,
ancestry, national origin, disability, or medical
condition , familial status, marital st atus, or
sexual orientation .
(d) Nothing in this section shall be construed to require any
construction, alteration, repair, structural or otherwise, or
modification of any sort whatsoever, beyond that construction,
alteration, repair, or modification that is otherwise required by
other provisions of law, to any new or existing establishment,
facility, building, improvement, or any other structure, nor shall
anything in this section be construed to augment, restrict, or alter
in any way the authority of the State Architect to require
construction, alteration, repair, or modifications that the State
Architect otherwise possesses pursuant to other laws.
(e) The identification of particular bases of discrimination
in subdivisions (b) and (c) is illustrative rather than restrictive.
(f) For purposes of this section:
(1) "Disability" means any mental or physical disability as
defined in Section Sections 12926
and 12926.1 of the Government Code.
(2) "Familial status" has the same meaning as
defined in Section 12955.2 of the Government Code.
(3) "Medical condition" has the same meaning
as defined in subdivision (h) of Section 12926 of the Government
Code.
(f)
(4) "Religion" includes all aspects of religious belief,
observance, and practice.
(5) "Sex" has the same meaning as defined in subdivision (p) of
Section 12926 of the Government Code.
(6) "Sex, race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin,
disability, medical condition, familial status, marital status, or
sexual orientation" includes a perception that the person has any of
those characteristics or that the person is associated with a person
who has, or is perceived to have, any of those characteristics.
(7) "Sexual orientation" has the same meaning as defined in
subdivision (q) of Section 12926 of the Government Code.
(g) A violation of the right of any
individual under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (Public
Law 101-336) shall also constitute a violation of this section.
SEC. 4. Section 51.5 of the Civil Code is amended to read:
51.5. (a) No business establishment of any kind whatsoever shall
discriminate against, boycott or blacklist, or refuse to buy from,
contract with, sell to, or trade with any person in this state
because of the race, creed, religion, color, national
origin, sex, disability, or medical condition of the person
on account of any characteristic listed or
defined in subdivision (b) or (f) of Section
51, or of the person's partners, members, stockholders,
directors, officers, managers, superintendents, agents, employees,
business associates, suppliers, or customers, because the person is
perceived to have one or more of those characteristics, or because
the person is associated with a person who has, or is perceived to
have, any of those characteristics. The identification i
n this subdivision of particular bases of discrimination is
illustrative rather than restrictive. (b) As used in this
section, "person" includes any person, firm, association,
organization, partnership, business trust, corporation, limited
liability company, or company.
(c) This section shall not be construed to require any
construction, alteration, repair, structural or otherwise, or
modification of any sort whatsoever, beyond that construction,
alteration, repair, or modification that is otherwise required by
other provisions of law, to any new or existing establishment,
facility, building, improvement, or any other structure, nor shall
this section be construed to augment, restrict, or alter in any way
the authority of the State Architect to require construction,
alteration, repair, or modifications that the State Architect
otherwise possesses pursuant to other laws.
(d) For purposes of this section:
(1) "Disability" means any mental or physical disability as
defined in Section 12926 of the Government Code.
(2) "Medical condition" has the same meaning as defined in
subdivision (h) of Section 12926 of the Government Code.
SEC. 5. Section 51.7 of the Civil Code is amended to read:
51.7. (a) All persons within the jurisdiction of this state have
the right to be free from any violence, or intimidation by threat of
violence, committed against their persons or property because of
their race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin,
political affiliation, sex, sexual orientation,
age, disability or on account of any characteristic
listed or defined in subdivision (b)
or (f) of Section 51 , or position in a
labor dispute, or because another person perceives them to have one
or more of those characteristics. The identification in this
subdivision of particular bases of discrimination is illustrative
rather than restrictive. (b) This section does
not apply to statements concerning positions in a labor dispute which
are made during otherwise lawful labor picketing.
(b) As used in this
section, "sexual orientation" means heterosexuality, homosexuality,
or bisexuality.
SEC. 6. Section 51.8 of the Civil Code is amended to read:
51.8. (a) No franchisor shall discriminate
in the granting of franchises solely because of the race,
color, religion, sex, national origin, or disability
on account of any characteristic listed or
defined in subdivision (b) or (f) of
Section 51 of the franchisee and the racial, ethnic,
religious, national origin, or disability composition of a
neighborhood or geographic area reflecting any characteristic
listed or defined in subdivision (b)
or (f) of Section 51 in which the franchise is
located. Nothing in this section shall be interpreted to prohibit a
franchisor from granting a franchise to prospective franchisees as
part of a program or programs to make franchises available to persons
lacking the capital, training, business experience, or other
qualifications ordinarily required of franchisees, or any other
affirmative action program adopted by the franchisor. The
identification in this section of particular bases of disc
rimination is illustrative rather than restrictive. (b)
Nothing in this section shall be construed to
require any construction, alteration, repair, structural or
otherwise, or modification of any sort whatsoever, beyond that
construction, alteration, repair, or modification that is otherwise
required by other provisions of law, to any new or existing
establishment, facility, building, improvement, or any other
structure, nor shall anything in this section be construed to
augment, restrict, or alter in any way the authority of the State
Architect to require construction, alteration, repair, or
modifications that the State Architect otherwise possesses pursuant
to other laws.
SEC. 7. Section 53 of the Civil Code is amended to read:
53. (a) Every provision in a written instrument relating to real
property which that purports to forbid
or restrict the conveyance, encumbrance, leasing, or mortgaging of
that real property to any person of a specified sex, race,
color, religion, ancestry, national origin, or disability,
because of any characteristic listed or
defined in subdivision (b) or (f) of Section 51
is void and every restriction or prohibition as to the use or
occupation of real property because of the user's or
occupier's sex, race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, or
disability any characteristic listed or
defined in subdivision (b) or (f) of
Section 51 is void.(b) Every restriction or prohibition,
whether by way of covenant, condition upon use or occupation, or upon
transfer of title to real property, which restriction or prohibition
directly or indirectly limits the acquisition, use or occupation of
that property because of the acquirer's, user's, or occupier'
s sex, race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, or
disability any characteristic listed or
defined in subdivision (b) or (f) of
Section 51 is void.
(c) The identification of particular bases of discrimination
in subdivisions (a) and (b) is illustrative rather than restrictive.
(d) In any action to declare that a
restriction or prohibition specified in subdivision (a) or (b) is
void, the court shall take judicial notice of the recorded instrument
or instruments containing the prohibitions or restrictions in the
same manner that it takes judicial notice of the matters listed in
Section 452 of the Evidence Code.