Washington, D.C. - Today, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) delivered the following statement on the House floor in support of H.R. 2116, the CROWN Act of 2022: 

"The 'Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair Act' or the 'CROWN Act,' is a critically important civil rights bill that would explicitly prohibit discrimination on the basis of hair texture or hairstyles commonly associated with a particular race or national origin.  It would do so in areas of the law where discrimination on the basis of race or national origin is already prohibited, such as employment, education, and housing.  

"Although Republicans blocked passage of this bill a few weeks ago, their arguments have just as little merit now as they did then.  That is why we are here again, to advance this important legislation.

"Among the arguments that we heard previously was that this bill was not needed because the law already protects people from hair-based discrimination.  While I agree that existing civil rights statutes—if properly read—already make such discrimination unlawful, several federal courts have erroneously rejected this interpretation, leaving the state of the law unclear, at best.

"Far from being duplicative, this legislation is absolutely essential to remove any ambiguity from the law, and to fix these courts’ misinterpretation of federal civil rights law.

"Republicans also argued that this legislation could somehow undermine the ability of employers to maintain workplace safety standards.  But nothing could be farther from the truth.  This bill does nothing to prohibit employers from addressing safety concerns, and the longstanding provisions under the civil rights laws that enable employers to ensure workplace safety would remain firmly in place.

"Since neither of these arguments holds up to scrutiny, it is important to step back and understand why the CROWN Act is so urgently needed.  According to a 2019 study conducted by the JOY Collective, Black people are 'disproportionately burdened by policies and practices in public places, including the workplace, that target, profile, or single them out for natural hair styles' and other hairstyles traditionally associated with their race, like braids, locs, and twists.

"This has real consequences for real people.  Students have been sent home from school or told they could not walk at graduation; employees have been told to change their hair because it violated their employer’s dress code; some people have even been denied jobs altogether because of their hairstyles.

"In view of these disturbing facts, fourteen states have enacted statutes prohibiting discrimination on the basis of an individual’s natural hairstyle—in every case with bipartisan support and sometimes even with the unanimous support of both parties.

"I am disappointed that we did not see such bipartisan support when we brought this bill up a few weeks ago, but my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have another chance today to do the right thing.  This is a matter of basic justice that demands a national solution by Congress.  That is why I strongly support the CROWN Act.

"I thank the Gentlewoman from New Jersey, Representative Bonnie Watson Coleman, for her leadership, and for introducing this important bill this Congress.  I urge all members to support this legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time."