CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT BY: eb
President Bush has signed the brand new Civil Rights act! This act has been debated for two years in congress. Congress and the president have been going back and forth, with many vetoes along the way. “I deeply regret having to take this action with respect to a bill bearing such a title, especially since it contains provisions that I strongly endorse…” said Bush, after he vetoed the bill. Later on, President Bush did end up passing this bill, and turning it into a law. By doing that, he replaced the civil rights act of 1964 with the Civil rights act of 1990, making it stronger then any Civil rights act then there has ever been before, making life better in America.
The new civil rights act outlaws discrimination in employment. Not only discrimination in color, but also in race, gender and religion. This civil rights act states that if any business is caught discriminating against individuals they will have to pay a huge fine. If the business employs 500 or more workers, they must pay a maximum of $300,000. If the business employs 15-100 workers, the maximum for fines is $50,000. Under this new act, people can get a jury for cases involving intentional discrimination. Overall, this act fixed problems in the case of intentional employment discrimination.
Congress has also passed a
new Americans with Disabilities
act for people who have a mental,
or physical disability. This act
prohibits businesses from
discriminating against the
disabled when they are hiring
people, even if they don’t
work as fast or as well as others.
Discrimination of the disabled
is now outlawed in recruitment,
hiring, promotions, training, and pay. Also, no business can deny service to any individual who is disabled. Participation in programs or activities can that are available to people without disabilities cannot be denied to people who have disabilities. To determine whether or not a person has a disability, there has to be an impairment that limits or restricts a major life activity, like hearing, speaking, walking, etc. People who are considered to have a disability, when they really don’t, and people who are connected with people who have disabilities are also protected. For example, it is now illegal to discriminate against a worker if her husband has a disability. This act covers people who work for private companies, state and local governments, employment agencies and labor organizations.