Law360: 5 New State Laws That Discrimination Attys Should Know

January 1. 2025

Policy Director & Deputy Legal Director Jessica Ramey Stender is featured in a Law 360 article about new 2025 laws in California, including 2 ERA sponsored bills in our 2024 Stronger California agenda for women’s economic security.

ERA-sponsored Senate Bill 1137 explicitly recognizes intersectionality in anti-discrimination laws.

“Although it is a clarification of existing law … having the explicit codification and clarification about intersectionality in the law will be very important for providing clarity to courts, to juries, to arbitrators, [and] to any decisionmakers in cases involving allegations of discrimination under the three statutes that are amended by this,” Stender said…

“And it recognizes the reality that that unique harm of intersectional harassment or discrimination is different [from] the harm that is experienced by a worker who is discriminated against or harassed based on just one protected class.”

ERA-sponsored Assembly Bill 2499 expands definitions in laws that provide paid sick days to workers and their loved ones who experience domestic violence, sexual assault, and/or stalking.

“While we’ve had protections on the books in California for many years for domestic violence survivors and other survivors of other crimes, A.B. 2499 will provide some important additions to the law to… ensure that survivors are better protected as they seek safety, and also to establish a smoother enforcement process for some of these protections,” said Stender of Equal Rights Advocates.

“The importance of this addition to the law really needs to be underscored — that is the fact that while, let’s say, a survivor of domestic violence under existing law has the right to take time off work to seek help related to the domestic violence that she suffered, she may not feel comfortable doing that alone,” Stender added. “It may be that having that support of a family member is what makes the difference for a survivor and ensures that a survivor is actually able to get the help and safety measures that she needs.”

Read the full article on Law360, or bypass the paywall by reading it here.