Legislation

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.

The Affiliate achieved its first legislative victory of the session back in February, when the Governor withdrew his extremely dangerous “homeland security” bill just days after he had proposed it.

In an historic collaboration between the civil rights community and local police chiefs, the General Assembly enacted a comprehensive bill designed to tackle the problem of racial profiling in the state.

A bill that would require any person who “lobbies” the executive branch to submit to various reporting and disclosure requirements was significantly amended to address ACLU concerns before being approved.