Missouri law making it harder to sue for race bias sponsored by senator whose business faces suit
Gary Romine/Missouri Senate website
A Missouri lawmaker who sponsored a new state law making it more difficult to sue for discrimination has a business that is facing a discrimination lawsuit.
The lawmaker is State Sen. Gary Romine, report NBC News, St. Louis Public Radio and the Riverfront Times. Romine owns Show-Me Rent to Own, which was sued in 2015 by a former employee who claimed his supervisor used the N-word and posted a map indicating that rentals should not be made in a majority-black neighborhood.
Romine tells NBC the law is not retroactive and won’t benefit his business in the pending suit.
The law, Senate Bill 43, takes effect on Aug. 28. One provision in the law allows suits against companies, but not co-workers or supervisors. A bill summary says the law also changes the “motivating factor standard.” Plaintiffs suing businesses will have to show discrimination was the motivating factor in an employer’s wrongful action, rather than a contributing factor, which was the old standard. The law also caps damages in amounts that are based on the size of the business. Companies with between five and 100 employees would have to pay no more than $50,000.
The Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry says Missouri has been one of the easiest states in the nation to win suits against companies, and the law will change that.
The NAACP says in a press release that the law “hearkens back to the Jim Crow-era” and would prevent individuals from protecting themselves from discrimination, harassment and retaliation in Missouri.
The NAACP has issued a travel advisory that says black travelers may not be safe in the state because of several recent race-based incidents, including one involving Tory Sanford, a Tennessee man who died in May in a southeast Missouri jail after his car ran out of gas. The release also says that African-Americans in Missouri are 75 percent more likely than whites to be stopped and searched by law enforcement officers.
Story updated at 1:35 p.m. to clarify that employers suing businesses under the new law will have to show discrimination was the motivating factor in wrongful action.
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