The Florida Civil Rights Act (“FCRA”) prohibits discrimination in employment based on many protected categories but pregnancy is not expressly listed as one of them. There has been a split in the Florida District Courts of Appeal as to whether pregnancy is covered under the FCRA. To resolve the split, the Florida Supreme Court heard arguments in November 2013. Before the Supreme Court issued its ruling, the Florida Senate jumped in and unanimously voted in favor of a bill to amend the Florida Civil Rights Act to prohibit discrimination based on pregnancy. The Senate bill provides that the amendment shall take effect July 1, 2014. If this amendment becomes the law of the State, one effect will be that claims for emotional distress will, unlike the federal pregnancy discrimination prohibition, be uncapped.
