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DRAFT FOR ATTORNEY REVIEW — NOT FINAL

§ 46a-58

Citation
§ 46a-58
Parent Document
Connecticut Judicial Branch v. Gilbert, 343 Conn. 90 (2022)
Jurisdiction
Connecticut (state)
Effective Date
2022-04-26

Other Sections in This Document (128)

Full Text

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It is equally clear that the legislature has conferred
          on the commission the authority to identify violations
          of federal civil rights laws, such as Title VII, as a predi-
          cate to finding a violation of § 46a-58 (a). In 1975, the
          legislature made clear that the commission had author-
          ity not only to investigate complaints of such violations
          but also to resolve civil claims brought under the prede-
          cessor to § 46a-58 (a). See Public Acts 1975, No. 75-
          462. Under the scheme as presently codified, General
          Statutes § 46a-51 (8) defines ‘‘discriminatory practices’’
          under the jurisdiction of the commission to include,
          among other things, violations of § 46a-58; General Stat-
          utes § 46a-56 (a) (3) requires that the commission, among
          its other duties, ‘‘[i]nvestigate and proceed in all cases
          of discriminatory practices’’; and General Statutes
          § 46a-84 (b) authorizes the commission to hold public
          contested hearings to resolve on the merits civil com-
             8
               See Public Acts 1884, c. 86; see also F. Johnson, The Development of
          State Legislation Concerning the Free Negro (1919) pp. 27–28, 31 (indicating
          that chapter 86 of 1884 Public Acts was ‘‘a measure of general application’’
          modeled on fourteenth amendment and federal Civil Rights Act of 1866,
          which ‘‘covered the whole field [of civil law] by broad enactment’’).
             9
               Section 46a-58 (a), in its original form, did not precisely mirror the text
          of any of the federal statutes, criminal or civil, but was similarly aimed at
          the deprivation of legally protected rights on the basis of race or color.
          In 1949, our legislature supplemented the penal statute with a separate
          mechanism for civil enforcement, authorizing a person aggrieved by a viola-
          tion thereof to file a complaint with the commission’s predecessor, the civil
          rights commission. See General Statutes (1955 Supp.) § 3268d.
Page 44                        CONNECTICUT LAW JOURNAL                             April 26, 2022