Celebrating AB1964, California’s new religious freedom law

Posted at 06:57 PM ET, 09/18/2012
TheWashingtonPost
By Rajdeep Singh

California Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill providing workers in his state the nation’s strongest protections against religious discrimination. Spearheaded by Sikhs, AB1964—the Workplace Religious Freedom Act—guarantees equal employment opportunity to millions of Californians, regardless of their religion.

AB1964 has American pluralism written all over it. The bill was sponsored by the Sikh Coalition and authored by assembly member Mariko Yamada, who saw parallels between post-Sept. 11 discrimination and the imprisonment of her family in internment camps during the Second World War because of their Japanese ancestry. Over time, the bill gained support from labor and civil rights organizations, as well as interfaith groups representing Muslims, Jews, Hindus, and Christians. In the end, it sailed through the California Legislature with bipartisan support.

The nation deserves to know why this law matters.

Federal law is supposed to provide a baseline for civil rights protection in the United States. In the context of workplace discrimination, however, the federal floor has fallen out beneath religious minorities. Although Congress intended for Americans of all faiths to enjoy equal employment opportunity under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, unelected judges have interpreted Title VII so narrowly that it empowers employers to discriminate with impunity.

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