[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 4046 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

111th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 4046

    To amend title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to establish 
provisions with respect to religious accommodations in employment, and 
                          for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           December 17, 2010

   Mr. Kerry introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
  referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
    To amend title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to establish 
provisions with respect to religious accommodations in employment, and 
                          for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Workplace Religious Freedom Act of 
2010''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) In enacting title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 
        (42 U.S.C. 2000e et seq.) (referred to in this Act as ``title 
        VII''), Congress--
                    (A) recognized the widespread incidence of and harm 
                caused by religious discrimination in employment;
                    (B) expressly intended to establish that religion 
                is a class protected from discrimination in employment, 
                as race, color, sex, and national origin are protected 
                classes; and
                    (C) recognized that, absent undue hardship, a 
                covered employer's failure to reasonably accommodate an 
                employee's religious practice is discrimination within 
                the meaning of that title.
            (2) Eradicating religious discrimination in employment is 
        essential to reach the goal of full equal employment 
        opportunity in the United States.
            (3) In Trans World Airlines, Inc. v. Hardison, 432 U.S. 63 
        (1977), the Supreme Court held that an employer could deny an 
        employee's request for religious accommodation based on any 
        burden greater than a de minimus burden on the employer, and 
        thus narrowed the scope of protection of title VII against 
        religious discrimination in employment, contrary to the intent 
        of Congress.
            (4) As a consequence of the Hardison decision and resulting 
        appellate and trial court decisions, discrimination against 
        employees on the basis of religion in employment continues to 
        be an unfortunate and unacceptable reality.
            (5) Federal, State, and local government, and private 
        employers have a history and have established a continuing 
        pattern of discrimination in unreasonably denying religious 
        accommodations in employment, including in the areas of garb, 
        grooming, and scheduling.
            (6) Although this Act addresses requests for accommodation 
        with respect to garb, grooming, and scheduling due to 
        employees' religious practices, enactment of this Act does not 
        represent a determination that other religious accommodation 
        requests do not deserve similar attention or future resolution 
        by Congress.
            (7) The Supreme Court has held in Fitzpatrick v. Bitzer, 
        427 U.S. 445 (1976) that Congress has clearly authorized 
        Federal courts to award monetary damages in favor of a private 
        individual against a State government found in violation of 
        title VII, and this holding is supported by Quern v. Jordan, 
        440 U.S. 332 (1979).

SEC. 3. PURPOSES.

    The purposes of this Act are--
            (1) to address the history and widespread pattern of 
        discrimination by private sector employers and Federal, State, 
        and local government employers in unreasonably denying 
        religious accommodations in employment, specifically in the 
        areas of garb, grooming, and scheduling;
            (2) to provide a comprehensive Federal prohibition of 
        employment discrimination on the basis of religion, including 
        that denial of accommodations, specifically in the areas of 
        garb, grooming, and scheduling;
            (3) to confirm Congress' clear and continuing intention to 
        abrogate States' 11th amendment immunity from claims made under 
        title VII; and
            (4) to invoke congressional powers to prohibit employment 
        discrimination, including the powers to enforce the 14th 
        amendment, and to regulate interstate commerce pursuant to 
        section 8 of article I of the Constitution, in order to 
        prohibit discrimination on the basis of religion, including 
        unreasonable denial of religious accommodations, specifically 
        in the areas of garb, grooming, and scheduling.

SEC. 4. AMENDMENTS.

    (a) Definitions.--Section 701(j) of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 
(42 U.S.C. 2000e(j)) is amended--
            (1) by inserting ``(1)'' after ``(j)'';
            (2) in paragraph (1), as so designated, by striking ``he is 
        unable'' and inserting ``the employer is unable, after 
        initiating and engaging in an affirmative and bona fide 
        effort,''; and
            (3) by adding at the end the following:
            ``(2) For purposes of paragraph (1), with respect to the 
        practice of wearing religious clothing or a religious 
        hairstyle, or of taking time off for a religious reason, an 
        accommodation of such a religious practice--
                    ``(A) shall not be considered to be a reasonable 
                accommodation unless the accommodation removes the 
                conflict between employment requirements and the 
                religious practice of the employee;
                    ``(B) shall be considered to impose an undue 
                hardship on the conduct of the employer's business only 
                if the accommodation imposes a significant difficulty 
                or expense on the conduct of the employer's business 
                when considered in light of relevant factors set forth 
                in section 101(10)(B) of the Americans with 
                Disabilities Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 12111(10)(B)) 
                (including accompanying regulations); and
                    ``(C) shall not be considered to be a reasonable 
                accommodation if the accommodation requires segregation 
                of an employee from customers or the general public.
            ``(3) In this subsection:
                    ``(A) The term `taking time off for a religious 
                reason' means taking time off for a holy day or to 
                participate in a religious observance.
                    ``(B) The term `wearing religious clothing or a 
                religious hairstyle' means--
                            ``(i) wearing religious apparel the wearing 
                        of which is part of the observance of the 
                        religious faith practiced by the individual;
                            ``(ii) wearing jewelry or another ornament 
                        the wearing of which is part of the observance 
                        of the religious faith practiced by the 
                        individual;
                            ``(iii) carrying an object the carrying of 
                        which is part of the observance of the 
                        religious faith practiced by the individual; or
                            ``(iv) adopting the presence, absence, or 
                        style of a person's hair or beard the adoption 
                        of which is part of the observance of the 
                        religious faith practiced by the individual.''.

SEC. 5. EFFECTIVE DATE; APPLICATION OF AMENDMENTS; SEVERABILITY.

    (a) Effective Date.--Except as provided in subsection (b), this Act 
and the amendments made by section 4 take effect on the date of 
enactment of this Act.
    (b) Application of Amendments.--This Act and the amendments made by 
section 4 do not apply with respect to conduct occurring before the 
date of enactment of this Act.
    (c) No Diminution of Rights.--With respect to religious practices 
not described in section 701(j)(2) of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as 
amended by section 4(a)(3), nothing in this Act or an amendment made by 
this Act shall be construed to diminish any right that may exist, or 
remedy that may be available, on the day before the date of enactment 
of this Act, for discrimination in employment because of religion by 
reason of failure to provide a reasonable accommodation of a religious 
practice, pursuant to title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 
U.S.C. 2000e et seq.).
    (d) Severability.--
            (1) In general.--If any provision of an amendment made by 
        this Act, or any application of such provision to any person or 
        circumstance, is held to be unconstitutional, the remainder of 
        the amendments made by this Act and the application of the 
        provision to any other person or circumstance shall not be 
        affected.
            (2) Definition of religion.--If, in the course of 
        determining a claim brought under title VII of the Civil Rights 
        Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C. 2000e et seq.), a court holds that the 
        application of the provision described in paragraph (1) to a 
        person or circumstance is unconstitutional, the court shall 
        determine the claim with respect to that person or circumstance 
        by applying the definition of the term ``religion'' specified 
        in section 701 of that Act (42 U.S.C. 2000e), as in effect on 
        the day before the date of enactment of this Act.
                                 <all>