New Jersey Updates Discrimination Law: New Rules for AI Fairness
By Liisa M. Thomas and Kathryn Smith, The National Law Review, February 20, 2025
The New Jersey AG and the Division on Civil Rights’ new guidance on algorithmic discrimination explains how AI tools might be used in ways that violate the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination. The law applies to employers in New Jersey, and some of its requirements overlap with new state “comprehensive” privacy laws. In particular, those laws’ requirements on automated decisionmaking. Those laws, however, typically do not apply in an employment context (with the exception of California). This New Jersey guidance (which mirrors what we are seeing in other states) is a reminder that privacy practitioners should keep in mind AI discrimination beyond the consumer context.
The division released the guidance last month (as reported in our sister blog) to assist businesses as they vet automated decision-making tools. In particular, to avoid unfair bias against protected characteristics like sex, race, religion, and military service. The guidance clarifies that the law prohibits “algorithmic discrimination,” which occurs when artificial intelligence (or an “automated decision-making tool”) creates biased outcomes based on protected characteristics.
