Legislation

In a civil liberties defeat, the General Assembly passed a bill significantly expanding the number of sex offenders whose names and photos will be posted on a state web site for public viewing.

In another unfortunate civil liberties loss, the House defeated a bill that would have required police to record most interrogations of suspects charged with capital offenses.

The Senate took no action on a bill approved by the House that would have doubled the criminal penalties for various drug crimes if committed within 300 yards of a public college or university.

By overwhelming margins, the legislature approved a bill to allow people with specific serious and terminal illnesses to possess small amounts of marijuana for medical purposes, if authorized by a physician.

Two bills promoted by the Affiliate in response to the government’s continuing “war on terrorism” died in committee.

A number of bills with civil liberties implications died in the General Assembly this session.

In order to give members a more in-depth sense of the Affiliate’s legislative work, we have picked one topic – open government – and briefly summarize how the ACLU helped shape a variety of pieces of legislation, both large and small, on the issue this session.