Loc(K)Ed out: The Legal Imperative for a Federal Crown Act & Redefined Immutability

In 2019, California became the first state to pass the Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair (CROWN) Act, a legislative initiative created to combat race-based hair discrimination in the United States. Race-based hair discrimination in the United States is rooted in the degradation of the Black phenotype during the transatlantic slave trade. In the face of this, Black Americans have made efforts to reclaim Black power and uplift Black beauty through the Black Power Movement, and more recently through a second wave natural hair movement. Despite the pivotal role civil rights protections, like those enacted through the Civil Rights Acts of 1866, 1871, and 1964, have played in the race-discrimination landscape, existing discrimination law falls short in remedying race-based hair discrimination. Judicial rulings, particularly that in EEOC v. Catastrophe Management Solutions, have reinforced the concept that natural Black hairstyles are not an immutable trait, allowing employers and public institutions to enforce discriminatory grooming policies that disproportionately impact Black individuals. The CROWN Act has the potential to rectify the shortcomings of existing discrimination law by providing Black people with a legal remedy against race-based hair discrimination. This Note argues that Congress should enact a federal CROWN Act that explicitly frames natural Black hairstyling as a flexible carve-out immutable trait akin to presently established immutable traits, such as skin color. This would remedy the gap existing anti-discrimination laws have left and firmly establish race-based hair discrimination as a form of racial bias under federal law.