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Refused a Job or a Flat Because You Might Be Called Up — That Is Illegal Here

The New Jersey Law Against Discrimination protects people with liability for service in the Armed Forces. An employer may not refuse to hire or promote you because you may be called to duty, and a landlord may not refuse you housing for the same reason.

Verified August 23, 2026

What this benefit is

The New Jersey Law Against Discrimination protects people with liability for service in the Armed Forces. An employer may not refuse to hire or promote you because you may be called to duty, and a landlord may not refuse you housing for the same reason.

What it's worth: A protected characteristic in employment, housing and public accommodation

  • This is a right to complain, not a payment. What it is worth depends entirely on whether you have been discriminated against and what a complaint recovers.
  • The Division’s fact sheet describes the protection and the anti-retaliation rule. It does not publish a remedy schedule, so we publish no figure.

Who is entitled to it

  • You are the servicemember or veteran, or a family member reading on their behalf.
  • Your home is in New Jersey.

Not sure whether that describes you?

Answer a few questions about this benefit specifically — we only ask what this one actually depends on, and we stop as soon as we know.

How to claim it

Deadline: Filing deadlines apply — ask the Division as soon as it happens
  1. 1Understand what the protected characteristic actually is. The Law Against Discrimination protects those with "liability for service" in the Armed Forces — that is about being callable, not only about having served.
  2. 2In employment: an employer may not refuse to hire you, or decline to promote you, simply because you may be called to duty at some point in the future.
  3. 3In housing: you may not be denied housing because of liability for service in the armed forces.
  4. 4In public accommodation: places open to the public — the Division names businesses, schools, restaurants and government buildings — may not discriminate against you either.
  5. 5If you complain and are punished for it, that is a second violation. An employer, landlord or place of public accommodation may not retaliate against you.
  6. 6Contact the Division on Civil Rights on 973-648-2700, or through NJCivilRights.gov. Ask about the filing deadline in the same call, because it is the thing that most often ends a good complaint.
File with
The New Jersey Division on Civil Rights
No renewal
Once granted it does not need renewing.
CorrectionThis is forward-looking, not backward-looking. The protection is about liability for service — a Guard or reserve member who has never deployed is squarely inside it. Veterans’ benefit guides file it nowhere, which is why most people who need it have never heard of it.
Worth knowingThe retaliation rule is separate from the underlying discrimination. Even where a discrimination claim is hard to prove, punishment for having raised it is its own violation, and it is often the easier one to show.
Known gapThe fact sheet we read states the protection and the contact details, but not the statutory section, the filing deadline or the remedies available. Ask the Division for all three at first contact — the deadline especially.

Sources

This finder provides an informational match, not a government eligibility determination. The responsible agency decides your application.