Wyoming civil rights amendment.

2017
STATE OF WYOMING
17LSO-0177
Introduced
1.2

Senate

Joint Resolution
NO.

SJ0004

Wyoming civil rights amendment.

Sponsored by:
Senator(s) Hicks, Christensen and Driskill and Representative(s) Lindholm, Miller and Steinmetz

A
JOINT RESOLUTION

for

A JOINT RESOLUTION proposing to amend the Wyoming Constitution to prohibit discrimination against and to ban preferential treatment to groups or individuals based on their race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin for public employment, public education or public contracting purposes.

BE
IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WYOMING,
two-thirds of all the members of the two houses, voting separately, concurring therein:

Section 1.
The following proposal to amend Wyoming Constitution, Article
1
,
by creating a new
Section
40
is proposed for submission to the electors of the
S
tate of Wyoming at the next general election for approval or
rejection to become valid as a part of the Constitution if ratified by a majority of the electors at the election:

Article 1, Section 40
.

D
iscrimination and preferential treatment prohibited
.

(a)

Public entities
shall not discriminate against
or
grant preferential treatment to
any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education or public contracting.

(
b
)

As used in this section,
"public entity
" includes, but is not limited to, t
he state of Wyoming and any of its
branches, agencies, municipalities,
counties, school districts, political subdivisions, special districts, community college
districts and the University
of Wyoming
.

(
c
)

This section does not prohibit action that must be taken to establish or maintain elig
ibility for any federal program
if ineligibility would result in a loss of federal funds.

(d
)

This section shall not be interpreted
to
prohibit bona fide qualifications based on sex that are reasonably necessary to the normal operation of publ
ic employment, public education
or public contracting.

(
e
)

The remedies available for violations of this section shall be the same, regardless of the injured party's race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin
.

(
f
)

If any part or parts of this section are found to be in conflict with the United States
c
onstitution or federal law, the section shall be implemented to the maximum
extent that the United States c
onstitution and federal law permit. Any provision held invalid shall be severable from the remaining portions of this section.

(
g
)

This section applies only to action taken after the effective date of this section.

(
h
)

This section does
not invalidate any court order or consent decree that is in force as of the effective date of this section.

Section 2.
That the Secretary of State shall endorse the following statement on the proposed amendment:

The adoption of this
amendment
will
prohibit
public entities

from
discriminating against or granting
preferential treatment to groups or individuals based on their race,
sex
, color, ethnicity or national origin for public employment,
public
education or
public
contracting purposes.

Public entities
affected by the proposal include
the
state of Wyoming and any of its
branches, agencies, municipalities,
counties, school districts, political subdivisions, special districts, community college districts and the University of Wyoming
.

(END)

1
SJ0004