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House passes statute cleanup to align Delaware nondiscrimination laws
Summary
Lawmakers approved House Bill 36, a statutory cleanup aligning various narrower nondiscrimination provisions with broader state nondiscrimination law to reduce confusion and potential litigation.
Dover, March 26 — The Delaware House approved House Bill 36, a measure the sponsor described as a housekeeping bill to align narrow nondiscrimination statutes with Delaware’s broader nondiscrimination law.
Representative Melissa Morrison, the bill sponsor, told the chamber the legislation aligns several narrower nondiscrimination provisions with the applicable broad statute across multiple titles of the Delaware Code to prevent misunderstandings and potential lawsuits.
“This legislation is essentially a clean up bill. It aligns Delaware's nondiscrimination laws,” Representative Morrison said on the floor, adding that aligning the statutes “will help us because it will prevent misunderstandings and also potential lawsuits against the state.”
The bill amends multiple code titles, including Title 2, Title 6, Title 9, Title 10, Title 14, Title 19, Title 20, Title 24, Title 25 and Title 29, to bring narrow provisions into conformity with broader nondiscrimination protections in state law.
Representative Morrison asked for and received a roll-call vote. The chief clerk reported the roll call as 36 yes, 1 no and 4 absent; with the constitutional majority achieved, the House passed the bill.
How this matters: Sponsors described HB36 as a technical but important clarification to reduce conflicting statutory language and litigation risk. The changes are procedural in nature — aligning terminology and scope — rather than creating new protected classes or rights beyond existing broader law.
Next steps: The bill is sent to the Senate for consideration.
