02-04-2026
New Jersey Issues New Guidance on Potential Language Discrimination
The New Jersey Division on Civil Rights (DCR) and the state attorney general issued new guidance on the state’s anti-discrimination law. This new guidance clarified the division’s interpretation of the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination regarding language requirements. It recognizes that some language-based discrimination may be unlawful because of its connection to protected groups. Employment practices and policies related to language, like language qualification requirements, could be discriminatory because of the “intrinsic relationship” between language and protected characteristics.
The DCR stated, “Where there is no articulable reason behind a language-based requirement or prohibition, the close link between language and protected characteristics may lead a court or the DCR to conclude that language was used as a proxy to discriminate based on a protected characteristic.” With nearly a quarter of New Jersey’s residents coming from other countries and a third speaking languages other than English, the DCR wants to protect against discrimination. DCR could perceive employment decisions and policies tied to employees’ language as unlawful discrimination under disparate treatment or disparate impact theories of law. Harassment based on language or accent could violate state law as “bias-based.” Some language requirements may be acceptable as a “bona fide occupational qualification” as they relate to a particular job.