6/24/24 Legislative Update

We are now in the final week of the legislature. If there are bills that you support, oppose, or don’t see on the agenda at all and want to see passed before session ends, now is the time to contact your legislators.

Bills to Pass

Here are some bills that need your help to get passed before June 30th. Please take a moment to contact your legislators using the links below.

Bill #	Sponsor	Summary/Description	Take Action
SS3 for SB 4 & SCR 175	Pinkney	Probation reform. This has been a major priority for the ACLU’s Smart Justice Campaign. SS3 for SB 4 would reform Delaware’s broken probation system and help those coming home better reenter. This bill has gone through many changes to mitigate opposition from law enforcement and other groups, and it would be unconscionable for our legislature to not pass this legislation this year. SCR 175 would establish the Probation System Task Force to study the probation system and make findings and recommendations. These bills were up for a Senate vote but were pulled from the agenda at the last minute despite the newest version seeming to address all of the publicly stated concerns from stakeholder groups.	Click here to send an email to legislators
HS1 for HB 17	Morrison	Earned sick & safety leave. This bill would require employers to provide employees with earned sick and safety leave for time worked. This bill is currently stuck in House Appropriations after it failed to be released by one Democratic vote: Rep. Nnamdi Chukwuocha. If Rep. Chukwuocha decides to sign the bill out of committee, it will then be ready for a House vote.	Click here to send an email to legislators
SS1 for SB 21	Sturgeon	Creating an independent Office of the Inspector General (OIG). The OIG would be an independent, nonpartisan office with the authority to investigate state agencies and state-funded entities for fraud, waste, mismanagement, and corruption. The state estimates that the OIG will cost around $1.5 million each year, which represents around 0.025% of the state's $6 billion budget for next year. There are 35 states with an OIG at the state or local level, and these offices have recovered billions of dollars, far exceeding the cost to fund them. In addition, a Delaware OIG would provide a critical mechanism to ensure public trust in how our government operates.	Click here to send an email to legislators
HS2 for HB 125	Moore	Requires all public schools to offer free breakfast and lunch to students who qualify for a reduced-price meal under the federal School Breakfast Program and National School Lunch Program. This bill has already passed the House and is awaiting a final vote in the Senate. We are hopeful that passing this bill will be a positive step towards guaranteeing free school meals for all students.	Click here to send an email to legislators
HB 445	Wilson-Anton	Ban law enforcement from using reverse keyword court orders. WHAT IS A REVERSE-KEYWORD COURT ORDER? Reverse-keyword court orders enable the government to precisely identify an unspecified and unlimited number of persons who have sought information about a specific word or phrase, such as entering the term into an internet search engine during a specified time of interest, without identifying any specific person as to which there is probable cause to believe they have committed or will imminently commit a crime. Until further evidence clarifies their guilt or innocence, every person who entered a search term of interest will remain under criminal suspicion. Such general searches allow the government to sweep in personal information about hundreds or thousands of people who are not suspected of having committed any crime. These searches are an invasion of privacy, have a potentially chilling effect on civil liberties, and sidestep requirements for individualized suspicion that are otherwise required for a lawful search. This Act would prohibit law enforcement and courts from requesting, issuing, or enforcing reverse-keyword court orders and reverse keyword requests. It also creates a private right of action for an individual whose personal information was obtained in violation of this Act and requires the suppression of evidence derived from an unlawful or reverse-keyword search.	Click here to send an email to legislators
SS1 for SB 180	Gay	Voting rights for individuals convicted of felonies. This bill would restore voting rights to many people convicted of felonies who are currently disenfranchised. Currently, there are still disqualifying felonies for which a convicted individual permanently loses the right to vote. For other felonies, individuals are eligible to re-register to vote only after completing their sentence (including probation, parole, and suspension). This bill: Limits the loss of the right to vote of an individual who is convicted of a felony to the period during which the individual is imprisoned due to the felony, or until the individual is pardoned, whichever comes first. Removes the ability of the General Assembly to impose the forfeiture of voting rights as a punishment for a crime. Removes the list of felonies resulting in permanent removal of the right to vote. This bill was up for a Senate vote, but got pulled from the agenda at the last minute. Because this is a constitutional amendment, it must pass two consecutive general assemblies - that means if this bill does not pass this year, the earliest it could go into effect would be 2027.	Click here to send an email to legislators
HB 415	Phillips	Anti-Discrimination Provisions for Individuals Experiencing Homelessness. Formerly known as the Bill of Rights for Individuals Experiencing Homelessness, this legislation would prohibit discrimination on the sole basis that one is experiencing homelessness. It would also create a process by which the State Human and Civil Rights Commission and the Division of Human and Civil Rights may accept and investigate complaints of discriminatory treatment, attempt conciliation, and refer enforcement actions to law enforcement Internal Affairs if necessary.	Click here to send an email to legislators

Bills to Kill

Here are some bills that need your help to get stopped before June 30th. Please take a moment to contact your legislators using the links below.

Bill #	Sponsor	Summary/Description	Take Action
SB 11 & SB 12	Townsend	Concerning bail reform bills that have the potential to drastically increase the number of innocent people held in jail before trial. SS1 for SB 11 is a constitutional amendment greatly expanding the list of offenses for which a person can be detained without bail pretrial. While this was originally intended to move from cash bail to a risk-based system, this reform package retains cash bail and has relatively weak restrictions, potentially having harmful consequences when implemented. SB 12 expands pretrial detention for a number of charges. While the idea of moving from cash bail to risk assessment is good, and it’s good that people will have the right to representation at bail hearings, this bill massively expands the list of offenses innocent people can be held without bail for and preserves cash bail at the court’s discretion.	Click here to send an email to legislators
HB 264	K. Williams	Makes the crime of “patronizing a prostitute” a class E felony rather than a misdemeanor where the person from whom prostitution is sought is a minor. While this seems good in theory, a number of international organizations including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and the World Health Organization say that these laws actually put victims of trafficking in more danger by driving activity further underground and putting them at the mercy of traffickers and those soliciting sex who make riskier decisions to avoid prosecution. Organizations and experts instead call for decriminalization and increased resources.	Find your legislators’ contact info here to call or email them about this bill
HB 265	M. Smith	Requires a commercial entity that knowingly or intentionally provides pornography and other materials defined as harmful to minors to verify the age of individuals accessing the material. The problem with this bill is that it threatens important privacy concerns by requiring people to submit personal information to third-party, unregulated corporations. Those that use browsing history or facial recognition AI would also put minors at risk for exploitation. Additionally, “material harmful to minors” has a broad definition that could have a chilling effect on access to important health, sexual health, and educational information, especially for LGBTQ+ youth.	Click here to send an email to legislators