Civil Rights Act of 1991
Content of the Act and Its Significance
The Rights Act of 1991 was signed into law by President Bush in 2006 to amend most of the Civil Rights laws including part of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This right permits anyone who has discriminated against others to be tried by jury. The rights also introduced the possibility of the plaintiff being compensated for the damages leading to emotional distress. This law also limits the amount a jury is supposed to award compensation for the loss suffered.
This right was signed into law after a series of rulings in the Supreme Court that limited rights of employees who had sued their employers for discrimination. Signing it was timely and important because it not only strengthened
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Since this act allows for possible compensation on damages arising from discrimination in the work places, number of lawsuits has increased. Many people of color are seeking for compensation after being discriminated by their white employers. Moreover, attorneys of the plaintiff have also benefited since they use this compensation which are damage settlements as an avenue of negotiating more lucrative settlements.
Secondly, before this Act was signed into law, the prime responsibility of the judge hearing a civil rights case was to decide whether it should proceed or not, (Cathcart 22). Now, after it was signed, the act provides that jury trials should be present in all cases of intentional discrimination to rule whether an employer is guilty of committing a discriminatory misconduct and the amount of compensation that he or she should pay the employee.
Finally, this makes it difficult for employers to proof that they are innocent in disparate impact cases. This Act places a burden on employer to appropriately demonstrate his or her business practice in challenging his employers’ dissatisfaction of the employment practice, (Loudon 304). Before this Act was signed, employers were only required to produce evidence of a business justification with the ultimate burden of persuasion remaining with the