Legislation

This year, the General Assembly overwhelmingly approved deeply troubling legislation requiring judges to bar from owning animals not only anyone convicted of "unnecessary cruelty," but any other animal abuse offense.

Broadly-worded legislation dealing with the isolation by caretakers of elders and dependent adults sparked concerns from the ACLU and elder advocacy groups.

The state's medical marijuana law was crafted to put a high priority on patient privacy, but that consideration has been placed on the back burner a number of times in recent years in the name of public safety.

There were a number of bills introduced this year seeking to improve school security by imposing police-type enforcement measures into the school setting, including one buried within the 2019 budget.

Another well-intentioned piece of legislation, addressing the opioid overdose crisis, threatened to erode the trust addicted people have with their doctors by allowing doctors to break confidentiality and tell family members and friends of a person's addicted status - even over their express wishes.

A package of legislation developed as part of Rep. Teresa Tanzi's commission to study sexual harassment in the workplace could have had important and long-lasting effects. The ACLU testified in support of the entire package of legislation in June, but a few bills are especially worth highlighting.

The Department of Health legislation creates a multi-disciplinary team to review overdose deaths in conjunction with the state Medical Examiner, in order to identify emerging trends in drug overdoses and, hopefully, reduce deaths in the future.

Legislation was introduced which sought to impose felony penalties against any person who assists a minor in obtaining an abortion in another state without the consent of the minor's parents or the courts.

A proposal would allow doctors virtually unbridled authority to disclose a person's addiction status in the case of an overdose, even if the person is stable and able to make medical decisions and has expressed their desire that such information remain private.