Intersectional Bias Claims Gain Attention Amid Judicial Divide

California lawmakers are aiming to make it easier to bring claims of discrimination based on a combination of protected characteristics—such as sex and race—as case law across the country remains clouded by inconsistent rulings that advocates say harm workers’ access to recourse.

A measure (S.B. 1137) introduced earlier this month would make California the first jurisdiction to explicitly adopt the concept of intersectionality and clarify how courts should assess overlapping claims under the state’s anti-discrimination laws.

Intersectionality—a concept civil rights scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw coined in 1989 to explain how different social identities coincide and cause unfair treatment based on that ...