Civil Rights Groups Call on Massachusetts to Withdraw Proposed MCAD Regulations That Limit Access to Justice
Victims of Discrimination Will Face Further Limits to Accessing Justice Under New Rules
Civil rights leaders across Massachusetts are calling on the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination (MCAD) to withdraw newly proposed regulations that would make it even harder for people facing discrimination to seek justice. MCAD is the state agency responsible for enforcing Massachusetts’ anti-discrimination laws. For many victims of discrimination, filing a complaint with MCAD is not optional—it is required before they can pursue their rights in court. Yet for years, MCAD has been difficult to access, especially for low-income people without lawyers. The proposed new regulations would deepen these barriers, rather than fix them.
The proposed rules, which are open for public comment through the end of January 2026, include significant procedural changes. The rules would require unprecedented changes, including pre-investigation screening steps and complex electronic filings. These measures are not authorized by the Commonwealth. They reduce transparency, create hurdles, and prevent people from having their complaints fully reviewed, especially if they are low-income and navigating the process without access to counsel.
In response to the seismic changes, Lawyers for Civil Rights (LCR), the Brazilian Worker Center, Justice at Work, the Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health, the NAACP–Boston Branch, and the Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts are demanding that MCAD withdraw the proposed regulations and restart the process with meaningful input from the communities most affected.
In 2024, LCR and the Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts detailed serious barriers facing people who try to file discrimination complaints at MCAD. Their findings highlighted the agency’s failure to provide unrepresented individuals with a meaningful intake process and its chronic delays in handling cases. MCAD’s own FY 2025 Annual Report confirms that these problems have worsened. The agency’s case backlog—already at record levels in 2024—increased by more than 26% in the last fiscal year and now exceeds 2,300 cases. That means more than 2,300 people experiencing discrimination are waiting—often for years—for their cases to move forward.
Rather than addressing these failures, the proposed regulations would make matters worse. By shifting filing and key stages of the process entirely online, the rules ignore the digital divide that disproportionately affects communities of color, older adults, people with disabilities, and low-income residents. The introduction of a so-called “preliminary investigation” would also allow MCAD to dismiss more complaints before a full review, weakening protections for victims of discrimination. This process and outcome were never intended by the Commonwealth and would require legislative approval, as it directly conflicts with the statute that created MCAD and defines its mandate.
Civil rights organizations are urging MCAD to withdraw the proposed regulations and work collaboratively with community members, advocates, and affected residents to create a system that is accessible, transparent, and worthy of the Commonwealth’s civil rights laws.
“At this historic time, when federal authorities are abandoning and even reversing their civil rights commitments, we need the MCAD to step-up to ensure that survivors of discrimination have an open, transparent process available to freely pursue their claims. These proposed regulations do the opposite, making it far harder for legitimate claims to survive, and adding more delays and unnecessary complications to an already clogged system. The MCAD should start over and this time, before issuing new regulations, listen to input from the communities that they deeply affect,” said Ellen Messing, Access to Justice Fellow at Lawyers for Civil Rights.
“When workers come forward, they are taking a real risk,” said Lenita Reason, Executive Director of the Brazilian Worker Center. “These proposed changes at the MCAD would make that risk even greater by closing doors instead of opening them.”
“When workers have real access to enforcement, workplaces become safer and fairer,” said Tatiana Sofia Begault, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health.
“We must maintain the Commonwealth’s infrastructure for civil rights enforcement, and that includes demanding that the MCAD operates in a fair and equitable manner for all,” said Royal Smith, President of the NAACP-Boston Branch.
“Our members deserve access to employment and opportunities in economic development free of discrimination and inequality, but that can only be realized when our institutions operate in a fair and transparent manner, said Rahsaan Hall, President & CEO of the Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts. “These regulations lacked community insight and voice, and must be reassess with a true community process.”
The testimony is available here.