Opinion ID: 1515484
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The Remedial Power of the Division on Civil Rights

Text: As early as 1884, with the passage of the First Civil Rights Bill, L. 1884, c. 219, New Jersey began to chart a course of legislative initiatives outlawing various forms of discrimination and guarding against infringement of civil rights. [2] Among the legislative enactments designed to vindicate and safeguard these newly recognized rights was a 1938 act creating the New Jersey Goodwill Commission whose educational and informational functions were intended to foster racial and religious understanding. L. 1938, J.R. 11. [3] Although striking at numerous specific evils, these early efforts did not provide the comprehensive scheme needed to cope with the widespread incidence of invidious discrimination. Instead of constituting a uniform body of law, they represented a patchwork of remedial legislation confronting only isolated instances of discrimination. See note 2 supra. Moreover, they lacked the administrative coordination and the remedial power to become effective instruments for enforcing State policy. As a result, dissatisfaction with the effectiveness of this legislation finally prompted the Legislature to adopt the omnibus Law Against Discrimination, N.J.S.A. 10:5-1 et seq., L. 1945, c. 169. See generally, Blumrosen, Antidiscrimination Laws in Action in New Jersey: A Law-Sociology Study, 19 Rutgers L. Rev. 189 (1965). [4] This statutory scheme not only recognized that discriminatory practices impinge upon the rights of individuals who are personally subjected to such treatment, but also acknowledged the debilitating effects which such practices have on the welfare of society at large. As N.J.S.A. 10:5-3 expressly provides: The Legislature finds and declares that practices of discrimination against any of its inhabitants, because of race, creed, color, national origin, ancestry, age, sex, marital status or because of their liability for service in the Armed Forces of the United States, are a matter of concern to the government of the State, and that such discrimination threatens not only the rights and proper privileges of the inhabitants of the State but menaces the institutions and foundation of a free democratic State. [ N.J.S.A. 10:5-3; emphasis supplied.] In order to protect individuals discriminated against and to implement its general purpose and specific provisions, the Law Against Discrimination also provided for the creation of a Division on Civil Rights. This agency, which is located in the Department of Law and Public Safety and is under the administrative leadership of the Attorney General, has been accorded broad powers to effectuate the statutory intent. N.J.S.A. 10:5-6 outlines this mandate as follows: ... [T]o prevent and eliminate discrimination in the manner prohibited by this act against persons because of race, creed, color, national origin, ancestry, age, marital status or sex ... by employers, labor organizations, employment agencies or other persons and to take other actions against discrimination because of race, creed, color, national origin, ancestry or age ... as herein provided; and the division created hereunder is given general jurisdiction and authority for such purposes. In addition to having the power to accept or initiate complaints for violations of the Law Against Discrimination, N.J.S.A. 10:5-13, the Division has been empowered to undertake a variety of actions whose ultimate objective is the elimination of invidious prejudicial practices. Thus, it may promulgate rules, N.J.S.A. 10:5-8, investigate complaints, attempt conciliation between concerned parties, N.J.S.A. 10:5-14, hold hearings concerning the operation and effect of allegedly discriminatory practices, N.J.S.A. 10: 5-16, and even enforce provisions of the Law Against Discrimination in a summary proceeding before the Superior Court, N.J.S.A. 10:5-14.1. If the Division, after these various procedural steps, determines that there has been a violation of the Law Against Discrimination, it is statutorily authorized under N.J.S.A. 10:5-17 to: ... issue and cause to be served on such respondent an order requiring such respondent to cease and desist from such unlawful employment practice or unlawful discrimination and to take such affirmative action, including, but not limited to, hiring, reinstatement or upgrading of employees, with or without back pay, or restoration to membership, in any respondent labor organization, or extending full and equal accommodations, advantages, facilities, and privileges to all persons, as, in the judgment of the director, will effectuate the purpose of this act, and including a requirement for report of the manner of compliance.... [ N.J.S.A. 10:5-17; emphasis supplied.] Courts have construed this aspect of the Law Against Discrimination liberally in order to effectuate its remedial purpose. Fraser v. Robin Dee Day Camp, 44 N.J. 480 (1965); Levitt & Sons, Inc. v. Div. Against Discrimination, 31 N.J. 514, 524 (1960), appeal dismissed, 363 U.S. 418, 80 S.Ct. 1257, 4 L.Ed. 2d 1515 (1960). As we stated in Passaic Daily News v. Blair, 63 N.J. 474 (1973): This court has heretofore adopted a broadly sympathetic construction of the Law Against Discrimination and has interpreted the provisions thereof pertaining to the remedial powers of the Division on Civil Rights and the Director thereof with that high degree of liberality which comports with the preeminent social significance of its purposes and objects. [63 N.J. at 484; emphasis supplied.] See also Jones v. Haridor Realty Corp., 37 N.J. 384, 392-393 (1962); Gray v. Serruto Builders, Inc., 110 N.J. Super. 297, 306-307 (Ch. Div. 1970); Polk v. Cherry Hill Apartments, Inc., 62 N.J. 55, 58 (1972); N.J. Builders, Owners and Managers Ass'n v. Blair, 60 N.J. 330, 336-338 (1972). Initially, we must determine whether this broad grant of power was intended to include remedial quotas based upon racial criteria. Although such authority is not explicitly granted by the statutory provisions cited above and has not been considered by a court or the Division itself, [5] I find ample legal basis for inferring that it exists. Unlike those sections of the Law Against Discrimination which outline the procedure for considering allegations of discriminatory conduct, N.J.S.A. 10:5-17, the basic authorization of remedial powers is quite general in scope. In fact, that section expressly provides that the remedies which it suggests are not intended to be exclusive. In Jackson v. Concord Co., 54 N.J. 113 (1969), for example, this Court upheld an award of compensatory damages ordered by the Division on Civil Rights for a person who had been subject to housing discrimination. The Court found this form of relief, though not mentioned in the statute, to be implicit in the broad ambit of N.J.S.A. 10:5-17: The permissible affirmative action is not fully defined. The section only says including, but not limited to, hiring, reinstatement or upgrading of employees, with or without back pay, or restoration to membership, in any respondent labor organization  obviously referring to discrimination in employment  or extending full and equal accommodations, advantages, facilities and privileges to all persons  undoubtedly referring, in great generality, to affirmative action in cases of unlawful discrimination in housing and places of public accommodation. We have earlier held, in analogous interpretation situations under this act, that terms like include are words of enlargement and not of limitation and that examples specified thereafter are merely illustrative.    This is especially so here where the word including is followed by the phrase but not limited to. [54 N.J. at 126-127.] Consequently, as the majority is willing to concede, ante at 17, New Jersey courts have demonstrated a willingness to sanction a variety of different remedies imposed by the Division on Civil Rights, despite the absence of specific statutory authorization. Such remedial measures have included the required submission of annual reports by owners of multiple unit dwellings on the number of minority tenants in their apartments, N.J. Builders, Owners and Managers Ass'n v. Blair, supra ; compensatory damages for the increased cost of finding alternative, nonsegregated housing, Jackson v. Concord Co., supra ; compensatory damages for pain and suffering caused by discrimination, Zahorian v. Russell Fitt Real Estate Agency, 62 N.J. 399 (1973); mandatory submission of lists of available apartments by certain landlords every 30 days for two years, Polk v. Cherry Hill Apartments, Inc., supra ; and prohibition of classified advertising which segregates on the basis of sex, Passaic Daily News v. Blair, supra . An innovative approach by the Division on Civil Rights, coupled with the liberal interpretation of the Division's powers by the courts, has transformed N.J.S.A. 10:5-17 from a general mandate to pursue affirmative action into a viable and effective means of assuring equal protection under the law. This pattern of statutory interpretation indicates that judicially developed standards for affirmative action clearly encompass the type of relief ordered by the Division on Civil Rights in the instant case.