You do not have permission to edit this page, for the following reasons:

This IP address has been blocked from editing Wikipedia.
This does not affect your ability to read Wikipedia pages.
Most people who see this message have done nothing wrong. Some kinds of blocks restrict editing from specific service providers or telecom companies in response to recent abuse or vandalism, and can sometimes affect other users who are unrelated to that abuse. Review the information below for assistance if you do not believe that you have done anything wrong.

The IP address or range 54.163.0.0/16 has been blocked (disabled) by ‪Blablubbs‬ for the following reason(s):

The IP address that you are currently using has been blocked because it is believed to be a web host provider or colocation provider. To prevent abuse, web hosts and colocation providers may be blocked from editing Wikipedia.
You will not be able to edit Wikipedia using a web host or colocation provider because it hides your IP address, much like a proxy or VPN.
We recommend that you attempt to use another connection to edit. For example, if you use a proxy or VPN to connect to the internet, turn it off when editing Wikipedia. If you edit using a mobile connection, try using a Wi-Fi connection, and vice versa. If you are using a corporate internet connection, switch to a different Wi-Fi network. If you have a Wikipedia account, please log in.
If you do not have any other way to edit Wikipedia, you will need to request an IP block exemption.

How to appeal if you are confident that your connection does not use a colocation provider's IP address:
If you are confident that you are not using a web host, you may appeal this block by adding the following text on your talk page: ((unblock|reason=Caught by a colocation web host block but this host or IP is not a web host. My IP address is _______. Place any further information here. ~~~~)). You must fill in the blank with your IP address for this block to be investigated. Your IP address can be determined here. Alternatively, if you wish to keep your IP address private you can use the unblock ticket request system. There are several reasons you might be editing using the IP address of a web host or colocation provider (such as if you are using VPN software or a business network); please use this method of appeal only if you think your IP address is in fact not a web host or colocation provider.

Administrators: The IP block exemption user right should only be applied to allow users to edit using web host in exceptional circumstances, and requests should usually be directed to the functionaries team via email. If you intend to give the IPBE user right, a CheckUser needs to take a look at the account. This can be requested most easily at SPI Quick Checkuser Requests. Unblocking an IP or IP range with this template is highly discouraged without at least contacting the blocking administrator.

This block will expire on 17:28, 10 March 2024.

Even when blocked, you will usually still be able to edit your user talk page, as well as email administrators and other editors.

For information on how to proceed, please read the FAQ for blocked users and the guideline on block appeals. The guide to appealing blocks may also be helpful.

Other useful links: Blocking policy · Help:I have been blocked
Your IP address is in a range that has been blocked on all Wikimedia Foundation wikis. The block was made by ‪Jon Kolbert‬. The reason given is Open proxy/Webhost: See the help page if you are affected .
- Start of block: 18:27, 12 November 2023
- Expiry of block: 18:27, 12 November 2028
Your current IP address is 54.163.179.242. The blocked range is 54.163.0.0/16. Please include all above details in any queries you make. If you believe you were blocked by mistake, you can find additional information and instructions in the No open proxies global policy. Otherwise, to discuss the block please post a request for review on Meta-Wiki. You could also send an email to the stewards VRT queue at stewards@wikimedia.org including all above details.

You can view and copy the source of this page:

((Multiple issues|
((More citations needed|date=January 2023))
((More footnotes|date=January 2023))
))
((Infobox U.S. legislation
| name = Civil Rights Act of 1991
| fullname = Civil Rights Act of 1991
| acronym = 
| nickname = 
| enacted by = 102nd
| effective date = 
| public law url = 
| cite public law = Pub. L. 102-166
| cite statutes at large = 
| acts amended = ((ubl|[[Civil Rights Act of 1957]]|[[Civil Rights Act of 1960]]|[[Civil Rights Act of 1964]]))
| title amended = [[Title 42 of the United States Code|Title 42—Public Health And Welfare]]
| sections created = 
| sections amended = 1981 et seq.
| leghisturl = https://www.congress.gov/bill/102nd-congress/senate-bill/1745?r=1
| introducedin = Senate
| introducedbill = S.1745
| introducedby = [[John Danforth]] ([[Republican Party (United States)|R]]–[[Missouri|MO]])
| introduceddate = September 24, 1991
| committees = 
| passedbody1 = Senate
| passeddate1 = October 30, 1991<ref>((cite web|url=https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/102-1991/s238|title=S. 1745 (102nd): Civil Rights Act of 1991|work=GovTrack.us))</ref>
| passedvote1 = 93–5
| passedbody2 = House
| passedas2 = <!-- used if the second body changes the name of the legislation -->
| passeddate2 = November 7, 1991<ref>((cite web|url=https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/102-1991/h386|title=S. 1745 (102nd): Civil Rights Act of 1991|work=GovTrack.us))</ref>
| passedvote2 = 381–38
| signedpresident = [[George H. W. Bush]]
| signeddate = November 21, 1991
| amendments = 
| SCOTUS cases = 
| unsignedpresident = 
| vetoedpresident = 
))
The '''Civil Rights Act of 1991''' is a [[United States labor law]], passed in response to [[United States Supreme Court]] decisions that limited the rights of employees who had sued their employers for discrimination. The Act represented the first effort since the passage of the [[Civil Rights Act of 1964]] to modify some of the basic procedural and substantive rights provided by federal law in employment discrimination cases. It provided the right to trial by jury on discrimination claims and introduced the possibility of emotional distress damages and limited the amount that a jury could award. It added provisions to [[Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964]] protections expanding the rights of women to sue and collect compensatory and punitive damages for sexual discrimination or harassment.

[[President of the United States|United States President]] [[George H.W. Bush|George H. W. Bush]] had used his [[veto]] against the more comprehensive [[Civil Rights Act of 1990]]. He feared racial quotas would be imposed but later approved the 1991 version of the bill.<ref>[[Ann Devroy|Devroy, Ann]]. "Bush Vetoes Civil Rights Bill; Measure Said to Encourage Job Quotas; Women, Minorities Sharply Critical." Washington Post 23 October 1990, Print.</ref>

==Predecessors==
The 1991 Act was intended to strengthen the protections afforded by two different civil rights acts: the [[Civil Rights Act of 1866]], better known by the number assigned to it in the codification of federal laws as Section 1981, and the employment-related provisions of the [[Civil Rights Act of 1964]], generally referred to as Title VII. The two statutes, passed nearly a century apart, approached the issue of employment discrimination very differently: Section 1981 prohibited only discrimination based on race or color, but Title VII also prohibited discrimination on the basis of sex, religion, and national origin. Section 1981, which had lain dormant and unenforced for a century after its passage, allowed plaintiffs to seek compensatory damages and trial by jury. Title VII, passed in the 1960s when it was assumed that Southern juries could not render a fair verdict, allowed only trial by the court and provided for only traditional [[equity (law)|equitable]] remedies: back pay, reinstatement, and [[injunction]]s against future acts of discrimination. By the time the 1991 Act was passed, both allowed for an award of attorneys' fees.<ref>Flood, Julee Tate, "Judicial Influence on Academic Decision-Making: A Study of Tenure Denial Litigation Cases in which Higher Education Institutions Did Not Wholly Prevail. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 2012. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/1293</ref>

The 1991 Act expanded the remedies available to victims of discrimination by amending Title VII of the 1964 Act.

==Background==
Congress had amended Title VII once before, in 1972, when it broadened the coverage of the Act. It was moved to overhaul Title VII in 1991 and to harmonize it with Section 1981 jurisprudence, as a result of a series of controversial Supreme Court decisions:

*''[[Patterson v. McLean Credit Union]]'', ((ussc|491|164|1989)), which held that an employee could not sue for damages caused by racial harassment on the job because even if the employer's conduct were discriminatory, the employer had not denied the employee the "same right... to make and enforce contracts... as is enjoyed by white citizens," the language that Congress chose in passing the law in 1866.
*''[[Wards Cove Packing Co. v. Atonio]]'', ((ussc|490|642|1989)), which made it more difficult for employees of [[Wards Cove Packing Company]] to prove that an employer's personnel practices, neutral on their face, had an unlawful [[disparate impact]] on them by requiring that they identify the particular policy or requirement that allegedly produced [[inequality in the workplace|inequalities in the workplace]] and show that it, in isolation, had that effect.
*''[[Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins]],'' ((ussc|490|228|1989)), which held that the burden of proof shifted, once an employee had proved that an unlawful consideration had played a part in the employer's personnel decision, to the employer to prove that it would have made the same decision if it had not been motivated by that unlawful factor, but such proof by the employer would constitute a complete defense for the employer.
*''[[Martin v. Wilks]]'', ((ussc|490|755|1989)), which permitted white firefighters who had not been party to the litigation, establishing a consent decree governing hiring and promotion of black firefighters in the Birmingham, Alabama, Fire Department, to bring suit to challenge the decree.
*''[[United Automobile Workers v. Johnson Controls, Inc.]]'', ((ussc|499|187|1991)), which held that Title VII prohibits gender-specific fetal protection policies.

==Changes==
''Patterson'' had attracted much criticism since it appeared to leave employees victimized by racial harassment on the job with no effective remedies, as they could not prove a violation of Section 1981 and could rarely show any wage losses that they could recover under Title VII. In addition, the Court's narrow reading of the phrase "make or enforce contracts" eliminated any liability under Section 1981 for lost promotions and most other personnel decisions that did not constitute a refusal to hire on the basis of race or color.

Congress addressed the issue by redefining the phrase "make and enforce contracts" to include "the making, performance, modification, and termination of contracts, and the enjoyment of all benefits, privileges, terms, and conditions of the contractual relationship." Congress also clarified that Section 1981 applied to both governmental and private discrimination, the issue that the Supreme Court originally announced it would decide in ''Patterson''.

Congress also believed that the ''Wards Cove'' case made it too difficult to prove disparate impact claims under Title VII. While the amended Act still generally requires that a plaintiff identify particular employment practice(s) allegedly causing a disparate impact, Congress added that an employer's decisionmaking process may be analyzed as a whole if the plaintiff can show that "the elements of [an employer's] decisionmaking process are not capable of separation for analysis." Congress also established that the employer has the burden of proof on the business necessity defense and restored the meaning of "business necessity" to how it was interpreted before ''Wards Cove''.  Congress did not, however, alter the portion of ''Wards Cove'' describing the plaintiff's burden with respect to statistical proof, in which the court had held: "The mere existence of a statistical imbalance in an employer's workforce on account of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin is not alone sufficient to establish a prima facie case of disparate impact violation."

While the majority in Congress supported the burden-shifting rule in ''Price Waterhouse'', it was uncomfortable with how that case gave the employer the ability to prove that it would have made the same decision in any event, as a complete defense in a case in which it had been shown that race or gender or another unlawful factor played a significant role in its decision. Congress amended the Act to provide that the employer's proof that it would have made the same decision in any case was a defense to back pay, reinstatement and other remedies but not to liability ''per se''. The practical effect of this change was to allow a party that proved that the employer discriminated but could not show that it made any practical difference to the outcome could still recover attorney's fees after showing that the employer discriminated, even if no other remedy was awarded.

Finally, Congress limited the rights of non-parties to attack consent decrees by barring any challenges by parties who knew or should have known of the decree or who were adequately represented by the original parties.

The Act also authorized jury trials on Title VII claims and allowed Title VII plaintiffs to recover emotional distress and punitive damages, while imposing caps on such relief. The 1991 Act also made technical changes affecting the length of time allowed to challenge unlawful seniority provisions, to sue the federal government for discrimination, and to bring age discrimination claims, but it allowed successful plaintiffs to recover expert witness fees as part of an award of attorney's fees and to collect interest on any judgment against the federal government.

==See also==
*[[US labor law]]
*[[Civil right acts in the United States]]

==Notes==
((Reflist))
* ((cite web|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228137204 |title=International Union, U.A.W. v. Johnson Controls: History of Litigation Alliances and Mobilization to Challenge Fetal Protection Policies|date=April 2007|last=Sturm|first=Susan P. |website=ResearchGate |ssrn=982252))

==External links==
* [https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/COMPS-344/uslm/COMPS-344.xml Civil Rights Act of 1991] as amended ([https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/COMPS-344/pdf/COMPS-344.pdf PDF]/[https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/COMPS-344/ details]) in the [[United States Government Publishing Office|GPO]] [https://www.govinfo.gov/help/comps Statute Compilations collection]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20050216093312/http://www.eeoc.gov/policy/vii.html Changes in Title VII made by the Civil Rights Act of 1991]

((Authority control))

[[Category:1991 in American law]]
[[Category:102nd United States Congress]]
[[Category:Anti-discrimination law in the United States]]
[[Category:Civil Rights Acts]]
[[Category:United States statutes that abrogate Supreme Court decisions]]
[[Category:Post–civil rights era in African-American history]]
[[Category:Industrial and organizational psychology]]

Pages transcluded onto the current version of this page (help):

Civil Rights Act of 1991 (edit)
Template:Ambox (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Authority control (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Both (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Bulleted list (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Cite web (view source) (protected)
Template:Find sources mainspace (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Hlist/styles.css (view source) (protected)
Template:If empty (view source) (protected)
Template:Infobox (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Infobox U.S. legislation (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Main other (view source) (protected)
Template:More citations needed (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:More footnotes (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:More footnotes needed (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Multiple issues (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Multiple issues/styles.css (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Plainlist/styles.css (view source) (protected)
Template:Reflist (view source) (protected)
Template:Reflist/styles.css (view source) (protected)
Template:Template other (view source) (protected)
Template:Ubl (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Unbulleted list (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Ussc (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Yesno (view source) (protected)
Template:Yesno-no (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Arguments (view source) (protected)
Module:Authority control (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Authority control/config (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Category handler (view source) (protected)
Module:Category handler/blacklist (view source) (protected)
Module:Category handler/config (view source) (protected)
Module:Category handler/data (view source) (protected)
Module:Category handler/shared (view source) (protected)
Module:Check for unknown parameters (view source) (protected)
Module:Citation/CS1 (view source) (protected)
Module:Citation/CS1/COinS (view source) (protected)
Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration (view source) (protected)
Module:Citation/CS1/Date validation (view source) (protected)
Module:Citation/CS1/Identifiers (view source) (protected)
Module:Citation/CS1/Utilities (view source) (protected)
Module:Citation/CS1/Whitelist (view source) (protected)
Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css (view source) (protected)
Module:EditAtWikidata (view source) (protected)
Module:Find sources (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Find sources/config (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Find sources/links (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Find sources/templates/Find sources mainspace (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:If empty (view source) (protected)
Module:Infobox (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Infobox/styles.css (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:List (view source) (protected)
Module:Message box (view source) (protected)
Module:Message box/ambox.css (view source) (protected)
Module:Message box/configuration (view source) (protected)
Module:Namespace detect/config (view source) (protected)
Module:Namespace detect/data (view source) (protected)
Module:Navbar (view source) (protected)
Module:Navbar/configuration (view source) (protected)
Module:Navbox (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Navbox/configuration (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Navbox/styles.css (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:String (view source) (protected)
Module:TableTools (view source) (protected)
Module:Unsubst (view source) (protected)
Module:Yesno (view source) (protected)

Return to Civil Rights Act of 1991.

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Rights_Act_of_1991"