CIVIL MARRIAGE EQUALITY
“Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act”
The ACLU of Maryland is working alongside Equality Maryland to enact the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act, which will extend full civil marriage protections to lesbians and gay men while protecting the freedom of religions to maintain their definition and recognition of religious marriage.

In September, the Maryland Court of Appeals issued a devastating decision denying committed same-sex couples the right to marry. The Court of Appeals’ decision left it to the legislature to amend the state’s discriminatory marriage statute, so we are now taking the fight for civil marriage straight to the General Assembly. In 2008, for the first time in Maryland, legislators will have a chance to extend full marriage protections to committed same-sex couples as they consider “The Religious Freedom and Marriage Protection Act.” Same-sex couples in Maryland have been shut out of hospital rooms during the illness of a partner, lost their home after the death of a partner, and lacked health insurance and security for their children’s future because civil marriage is denied to them. This bill establishes full rights and protections for same-sex couples and their families while confirming the freedom of religious groups to define and recognize religious marriage consistent with their beliefs and practices without state interference.

On Monday, February 11, 2008, the ACLU of Maryland will partner with Equality Maryland for a lobby day that will show our political leaders in Maryland the tremendous amount of support that exists for civil marriage equality.

Click here to learn more about the “Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act:”
http://www.aclu-md.org/aLegislative/Issues/Civil_Marriage.html

LGBT Equal Protection
Also in partnership with Equality Maryland, the ACLU of Maryland supports individual bills designed to offer some protections for same-sex couples and their families in meeting basic daily challenges and obligations.  We are supporting the enactment of a healthcare facility visitation and medical decisions bill to authorize partners to visit loved ones in the hospital, and to participate in critical care decisions and end of life decisions; a recordation and transfer tax bill; and an inheritance tax bill to establish basic equity in real property transactions.  The ACLU also supports the inclusion of gender identity in the state’s anti-discrimination statute to provide protection from cruel and persistent acts of discrimination experienced by transgendered individuals.

DEATH PENALTY REPEAL
The ACLU will continue to advocate repeal of Maryland’s death penalty. Life without parole is the legal alternative to capital punishment supported by Marylanders. With Governor O’Malley’s strong support of abolishing Maryland’s death penalty during his inaugural legislative session and New Jersey’s repeal of its death penalty just before the new year, momentum for abolition in Maryland should carry a repeal bill to final passage in the 2008 legislative session.

On Monday, February 4, 2008, the ACLU of Maryland will partner with Maryland Citizens Against State Executions and other advocates for death penalty repeal.

Support for the bill in the House of Delegates and the Senate has grown so that we need only a few more key votes to replace the death penalty with life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. We will show the Maryland General Assembly that death penalty repeal is the only response to the increasing numbers of proven wrongful convictions and exonerations from death row, in Maryland and nationwide; the only response to the inhumanity of lethal injection and the irremediable “machinery of death;” and the only truly cost-effective response to the need for effective crime prevention and law enforcement safety policies. The time is now to put this respect for human dignity into action.

Click here to learn more:
http://www.aclu-md.org/aLegislative/Issues/Death_Penalty.html

CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORM
Wrongful Conviction & Due Process: Videotaping of Interrogations
The Maryland ACLU with the Maryland Innocence Coalition supports legislation requiring the videotaping of interrogations in violent felony cases.  Over 300 law enforcement departments around the country record interrogations in order to protect officers from accusations of misconduct, prevent false confessions, improve investigations, and protect the integrity and admissibility of confessions as evidence in criminal trials.  False confessions and inaccurately reported statements are highly correlated to wrongful convictions nationwide and in Maryland. The ACLU will encourage the General Assembly to do what is in the best interest of police departments and criminal justice overall by adopting legislation requiring the videotaping of interrogations.

PRIVACY
Oppose Implementation of Real ID
The Maryland ACLU opposes the implementation of the federal Real ID Act, which would turn our state driver’s license into a national identity card that would enable tracking of individuals and increase the threat of identity theft.   The Real ID Act would make highly personal information about Maryland driver’s license applicants available to motor vehicle administration employees nationwide and available to merchants and identity thieves through unencrypted machine-readable technology.  States around the country are passing laws and resolutions against this $23 billion unfunded federal mandate. The ACLU will be urging Maryland to join those states in 2008.

Click here to read ACLU-MD’s presentation opposing Real ID:
http://www.aclu-md.org/aLegislative/Docs/REAL_ID_presentation.pdf

Click here to learn more about the issue:
http://realnightmare.org/

PUBLIC EDUCATION ADEQUACY
Education Reform Bills
The ACLU of Maryland is working to protect state funding for public education, to maintain accountability for public schools to provide a quality education to all schoolchildren, and to improve the quality of school facilities.  The special session saw the State of Maryland retreat from its commitment and constitutional obligation to provide adequate and equitable state funding for K-12 education with a $150 million reduction to mandated state education funding.  More threatened reductions loom on the horizon for the 2008 legislative session as the state plans to reduce spending by an additional $250 million in fiscal 2009. In addition, the ACLU advocates that the state ensure that students receive needed educational interventions and support to pass the required High School Assessments.

Maryland ACLU also works to address issues related to the civil rights and liberties of school children, including freedom of speech and association, freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures, privacy of schoolchildren, and full access to educational opportunities.

Click here to learn more about ACLU’s Education Reform Project:
http://www.aclu-md.org/aTop%20Issues/EducationReform.html

SCHOOL-TO-PRISON PIPELINE
Research demonstrates that many school policies result in pushing children from the classroom into the criminal justice system.  Policies like zero tolerance for discipline violations, excessive use of expulsion, and criminalizing truancy—all take children from the classroom and their education into the juvenile justice system, where the chances of ending up in the adult criminal justice system increase exponentially.  These policies have a very disturbing disparate impact on poor children, disabled children and minorities. The ACLU of Maryland will monitor legislation that addresses school discipline, suspension and expulsion policies, truancy interventions, and the expansion of delinquent acts to prevent the increased criminalization of children and the funneling of children from school to prison through the juvenile justice system.

RELIGIOUS LIBERTY
Private/Religious School Vouchers
The ACLU of Maryland will oppose voucher initiatives that would divert millions in taxpayer dollars to private and religious schools from the general fund for necessary public school funding. The ACLU firmly believes that publicly-funded vouchers for religiously-run schools are part of a political and ideological crusade, not a plan for education reform. We believe that it is neither the responsibility nor the proper role of the State to subsidize education outside the public school system. There is no need, since all students are already offered a free education at the state’s public schools, which should be the State’s focus.

REPRODUCTIVE FREEDOM
The ACLU of Maryland will continue its vigilance in defending Maryland women’s right to reproductive freedom.  We support increased funds for teen pregnancy prevention and family planning services; despite rising health care costs, funding for these effective and comprehensive services has not increased for over a decade. The Maryland ACLU also supports legislation making emergency contraception available to victims of sexual assault in hospital emergency rooms. Finally, we will oppose any attempts to limit women’s access to full reproductive healthcare services including safe and legal abortions. In light of the recent Supreme Court ruling in Carhart v. Gonzales, we fully expect anti-choice foes to feel emboldened to seek new restrictions on abortion access. 

ELECTION INTEGRITY
After having successfully helped to usher passage of the “paper trail” bill in 2007, the ACLU of Maryland through the Election Integrity Coalition is working to ensure funding for implementation in the fiscal 2009 budget. The passed legislation requires Maryland's voting system to produce a separate, durable, auditable, voter-verified paper record.  It also contains model standards for voters with disabilities.

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