Provisions to keep in the Judiciary and Civil Law Policy omnibus bill 

Bill number:HF1404

HF1404 is a wide-ranging bill, including things like changes to laws on marriage licenses, fines for snowmobiling offenses, organ donation, closed captioning TV, and collecting money from Canadian court judgements.

There are lots of good and important provisions in HF1404. Here are some that we are particularly happy to see included:

• specify that hair texture and hair styles “including but not limited to braids, locks, and twists” are included in the definition of race for purposes of prohibiting racial discrimination under the Minnesota Human Rights Act. (From the CROWN Act, (Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair) adopted by more than a dozen states.) (HF1315)
• make it unlawful to limit a patient’s access to an organ transplant based on a patient’s race and ethnicity (HF3972)
• prevent employers, including labor unions and employment agencies, from requesting a job applicant’s pay history (HF403)
• remove an exception for duplex owners to discriminate against a renter on the basis of sexual orientation (HF3270)
• permit emancipated minors to seek harassment restraining orders on their own behalf (HF2665)
• make it a violation of the Minnesota Human Rights Act to deny access to closed captioning to a person who needs it in a place of public accommodation when television access is available to others (HF1134)

These provisions are in the House version of the Judiciary and Civil Law Policy omnibus bill. This omnibus has yet to go to conference committee, where they will negotiate what will stay in or not. It’s not clear when exactly this will happen, but it will be in the next few weeks.

Action:

Call/email your state Rep. and Senator and ask them to support the Judiciary and Civil Law Policy omnibus bill with the provisions that are currently in the House version of it (HF1404). Let them know if there are specific provisions you care about and why.

For more details on what is in this omnibus, see here (https://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/SessionDaily/Story/17338) and here (https://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/hrd/bs/92/HF1404.pdf)

Not sure who your state Representative or state Senator is? Check here: https://www.gis.lcc.mn.gov/iMaps/districts

This action was created by the Mn Legislative Action team.