What This Bill Does
This bill adds a new protection to federal law that prevents the government from locking people up based only on who they are (their race, religion, gender, or other similar characteristics). The bill is named after historical cases involving unlawful detention.
Who It Affects
Any individual in the United States who could be detained or imprisoned by the government.
Key Provisions
• The government cannot imprison or detain anyone based solely on an actual or perceived protected characteristic like race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, or disability (Sec. 2)
• The Attorney General (the head of the U.S. Department of Justice) can determine if additional characteristics should be protected under this law, but cannot remove the eight characteristics already listed (Sec. 2)
What Changes
This bill modifies Section 4001 of Title 18 of the United States Code by adding new language that makes it illegal for the government to detain anyone based solely on their protected characteristics.
Important Definitions
Protected characteristic: race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, or any other characteristic the Attorney General determines qualifies.
II
118TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
S. 129
To ensure due process protections of individuals in the United States against
unlawful detention based solely on a protected characteristic.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
JANUARY 30, 2023
Ms. DUCKWORTH (for herself, Ms. HIRONO, Mrs. FEINSTEIN, Mr. BOOKER,
Mr. MARKEY, Mr. DURBIN, Ms. WARREN, Mr. MERKLEY, Mr.
BLUMENTHAL, Ms. CORTEZ MASTO, Mr. PADILLA, Mr. COONS, Ms. KLO-
BUCHAR, Mr. MENENDEZ, Mr. WYDEN, Mr. VAN HOLLEN, Mrs. MUR-
RAY, Mr. SANDERS, Ms. SMITH, Mr. WHITEHOUSE, Mr. REED, Ms.
BALDWIN, Mr. CASEY, Mr. CARDIN, Mr. WELCH, and Mr. KAINE) intro-
duced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Com-
mittee on the Judiciary
A BILL
To ensure due process protections of individuals in the
United States against unlawful detention based solely
on a protected characteristic.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
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tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
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This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Korematsu-Takai Civil
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Liberties Protection Act of 2023’’.
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•S 129 IS
SEC. 2. PROHIBITION AGAINST UNLAWFUL DETENTION.
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Section 4001 of title 18, United States Code, is
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amended—
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(1) by redesignating subsection (b) as sub-
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section (c); and
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(2) by inserting after subsection (a) the fol-
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lowing:
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‘‘(b) PROHIBITION ON DETENTION BASED ON PRO-
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TECTED CHARACTERISTICS.—
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‘‘(1) DEFINITION.—In this subsection, the term
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‘protected characteristic’ includes each of the fol-
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lowing:
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‘‘(A) Race.
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‘‘(B) Ethnicity.
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‘‘(C) National origin.
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‘‘(D) Religion.
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‘‘(E) Sex.
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‘‘(F) Gender identity.
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‘‘(G) Sexual orientation.
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‘‘(H) Disability.
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‘‘(I) Any additional characteristic that the
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Attorney General determines to be a protected
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characteristic.
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‘‘(2) PROHIBITION.—No individual may be im-
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prisoned or otherwise detained based solely on an ac-
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•S 129 IS
tual or perceived protected characteristic of the indi-
1
vidual.
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‘‘(3) RULE
OF
CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in
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this subsection shall be construed to allow the Attor-
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ney General to remove a characteristic described in
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subparagraphs (A) through (H) of paragraph (1).’’.
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Æ
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