Democrats in New York introduced legislation Thursday to expand sexual harassment protections for government workers by attempting to curb a defense sometimes used by the state to have those claims thrown out in court.

Lawmakers want to do away with a tactic used by the state to claim that sexual harassment claims can only be brought against an employee's direct supervisor, rather than the state itself.

The measure is sponsored by Assemblywoman Yuh-Line Niou, D-Manhattan, and state Sen. Andrew Gounardes, D-Brooklyn, both of which were involved in other efforts over the past year to strengthen the state's laws on sexual harassment.

"Our laws still allow exceptions to our protections for certain workers in government," Niou said. "This undermines the progress we have made on rooting out sexual harassment in New York. Victims need to be able to trust our justice system, to feel safe to bring cases forward and seek justice."

As the law is currently written, the state can attempt to avoid liability for sexual harassment claims by arguing that it's not actually the government worker's employer and therefore should not be held to such allegations.

That was the case for Alexis Marquez, who sued the state, among others, over claims that she had been sexually harassed by her former supervisor, acting Supreme Court Justice Douglas Hoffman. Marquez is a former law clerk. Hoffman has denied the allegations in court filings.

But in a later court filing, the state argued that it was immune from Marquez's discrimination claims because it wasn't her employer at the time.

"Plaintiff does not allege any non-conclusory facts that suggest the State of New York was her employer at any time," the filing said.

The bill introduced Thursday would block that defense in the future by stating, clearly, that the state of New York is considered the employer of anyone serving in any of the three branches of state government. That would apply to Marquez, who worked in the judiciary.

It would add one sentence to the state Human Rights Law to make that change, according to the bill text.

"For the purposes of this article, the state of New York shall be considered an employer of any employee or official of the New York state executive, legislature, or judiciary, including persons serving in any judicial capacity, and persons serving on the staff of any elected official in New York state," the bill reads.

Gounardes decried the fact that the state can still claim not to be a government worker's employer in cases involving sexual harassment and said the state shouldn't be let off the hook for that litigation.

"Sexual harassment has been a fact of life in the halls of power in New York State for far too long," Gounardes said. "An exception to sexual harassment laws for elected officials' employees runs completely counter to efforts to root out, combat and deter harassment in government."

Democrats will consider the legislation when they return to Albany for next year's legislative session in January.

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