February 11, 2015 03:20 PM UTC

Waters-Woods' World: "I Simply Don't Discriminate"

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• by: Colorado Pols

The Colorado Independent's Tessa Cheek reports on action Monday in the GOP-controlled Colorado Senate Business, Labor, and Technology Committee to advance freshman Sen. Laura Waters Woods' first priority as a lawmaker: repealing the 2013 Colorado Civil Rights Enforcement Act, which gave workers in businesses under 15 employees remedies closer to those aready available under federal law to larger businesses. The 2013 law also extended job discrimination protections to LGBT employees:

The Act, which just took effect this January, expanded existing federal employee nondiscrimination protections, such as restitution of legal fees and damages, to include small businesses with fewer than 15 employees. In addition, the new protections added coverage for complaints of age- and sexual orientation-based discrimination.

Sen. Laura Woods, R-Arvada, sponsored the repeal, saying the law puts small businesses at too much risk. Her SB 69 would remove the entire state Civil Rights Act, except for the provision protecting employees 70 years or older.

“For most small businesses, just one claim that has to be investigated is all it would take to force a company out of business,” said Woods, noting that just defending against a claim can cost as much as $100,000.

It's worth noting that the law still requires job discrimination claims to be filed with the Colorado Civil Rights Division for investigation before plaintiffs are allowed to seek relief in court. Plaintiffs who bring frivolous cases can also be made to pay attorneys fees. Despite Woods' concern about the cost of defending against a discrimination suit, much of the case for repealing the 2013 Civil Rights Enforcement Act seems to rest on the fact that the Civil Rights Division has found many job discrimination claims to be without probable cause–even though that's evidence of the division doing its job preventing frivolous claims more than it is evidence of abuse.

Physician and Senator Irene Aguilar, D-Denver, equated that statistic to the number of malpractice lawsuits with merit, arguing that nobody really wants a medical system without any remedies for poor practice.

“I guess I think my role is to represent my constituents, and my constituents are people, not businesses,” said Aguilar. “So I’d have a disagreement with you about who I’m here to protect.” 

The fact is, this law has only been in effect since January, part of the compromise that allowed it to pass two years ago. That delayed implementation means there have been no "victims" either way–either discrimination victims or supposed victims of frivilous lawsuits–which supporters argue is a pretty good reason to not repeal anything until the law's effects can be evaluated.

But as you can see in the clip above, none of that troubles Sen. Waters Woods–because she "simply doesn't discriminate!" She says she doesn't discriminate, and "most small businesses" don't discriminate, and on the strength of her word, you can trust that small business employees (not to mention gays and lesbians at all sizes of businesses) don't need the same protections against job discrimination everybody else has.

Still not convinced? You must hate small business too.