Legislation

The ACLU and children’s rights advocates were shocked when the House Finance Committee passed out a budget that retained a proposal from the Governor and DCYF to treat all 17 year olds as adults for criminal purposes.

In response to a tragic incident where a teenager was killed in a drag race, the General Assembly approved an Attorney General bill that sets steep criminal penalties for this practice.

The House took no action on a constitutionally- suspect Senate bill that would have made it a crime to make a recorded political phone call to any person who had asked to be placed on a “do not call” list.

Another constitutionally questionable bill that passed the House but died in the Senate would have created a special class of liquor license strictly for the sale of sacramental wine, and only “to any duly ordained priest, minister or rabbi or to any church or religious society.”

This bill would have prohibited cities and towns from “altering the name or concept of any religious or secular holiday or secular figure or symbol associated with any such holiday.”

A major disappointment of 2007 was the failure of the House or Senate to take any action on comprehensive legislation, supported by a coalition of more than 40 organizations organized by the Affiliate, designed to address the problem of racial profiling.

One of the ACLU’s successes in 2007 was the passage of a bill amending the Administrative Procedures Act, an important statute that requires the opportunity for public input during the rulemaking proceedings of most state agencies.

The General Assembly overwhelmingly approved an ACLU bill to require schools to take a caseby- case approach in determining the appropriate discipline for students charged with drug, alcohol or weapons violations.

The legislature approved requiring public schools to educate students about, and respond to incidents of, “dating violence,” but only after the bill was amended at the ACLU’s request.