The CROWN Act, a chunk of US laws that might ban discrimination against an individual due to their natural hairstyle or texture, has faced one more roadblock as Republicans have halted the bill’s passage within the Senate.

The bill’s journey up until this point has been removed from plain sailing. Within the US legislature, for a bill to be enshrined in law it must go through each houses of Congress: the House of Representatives and the Senate. The CROWN Act was first introduced to the House of Representatives in December 2019 by Reps. Cedric Richmond, Ayanna Pressley, Marcia Fudge and Barbara Lee. It was initially passed by the House in September 2020, nevertheless later stalled within the GOP-controlled Senate.

The bill was reintroduced to the House in March 2021 and successfully passed a second time in March 2022, despite staunch opposition from Republican representatives. Nonetheless, on December 14 2022, the bill was delivered to the Senate floor and, once more, blocked by Republican Senators.

Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, the bill’s sponsor, spoke to the House a day after the bill was suspended. “I rise today since the Republican Party has once more chosen to face against civil rights”, she told her fellow representatives, adding that “I stand here dissatisfied but not defeated”, and went on to ask the Senators across the aisle to place party politics aside and “decide to stand for justice when the following opportunity arises”.

The CROWN Act, which stands for “Create a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair,” began its life as a chunk of laws in California, where it unanimously passed each chambers of the California State Legislature in the summertime of 2019. The law was then adopted in other states including Recent York, Recent Jersey, Washington, Virginia and Colorado, where it was enshrined in state law. The bill that’s currently being debated in Congress could be a part of federal law, meaning it could be enacted across the entire of the US if passed successfully.

In response to Republicans blocking the bill, Rep. Coleman and the Congressional Black Caucus, a body that advocates for issues essential to Black Americans, have urged Senate leadership to incorporate the CROWN Act in its end-of-year laws.