Legislative Memo: Paid Family Leave

This legislation would create a minimal-cost disability benefit that provides employees financial support and job leave when their families face serious healthcare challenges. The bill would provide a weekly disability benefit – with a limit of $340 per week, in its first year, for up to thirteen weeks – to help an employee care for a newborn or a seriously ill family member.... Read More

Legislative Memo: HIV Testing

This legislation purports to address important public health objectives: facilitating a large-scale increase in the numbers of people who are tested for HIV; encouraging access to early treatment; and reducing exposure to HIV/AIDS. However, in seeking to accomplish these objectives, the proposed legislation would eliminate important protections currently in place that ensure people who choose to be tested for HIV do so with the full knowledge and understanding of the meaning and implications of either a positive or negative HIV test result.... Read More

Legislative Memo: Parental Involvement in Minors’ Abortion Decisions

The proposed legislation would create a legal requirement that parents of an unemancipated minor must provide consent or must be informed before the minor can receive an abortion. ... Read More

Legislative Memo: Anti-Marriage Fairness Bill (2008)

New York State has a longstanding tradition of protecting the rights, freedoms and dignity of all of its residents and their families. The proposed legislation, which seeks to render void marriages “contracted by two people of the same sex, regardless of whether such marriage or union is recognized or solemnized by another jurisdiction,” is not only a rejection of New York State legal tradition, but it is also a retreat from a century old common law rule that calls on our state to respect a marriage performed elsewhere, even if that marriage could not be performed in this state.... Read More

Legislative Memo: Comprehensive Sex Education

This bill, the Healthy Teens Act, would award funding for school districts, boards of cooperative education services and community-based organizations to provide comprehensive sex education programs for young people. The NYCLU strongly supports this legislation.... Read More

Legislative Memo: The Healthy Teens Act

This bill, the Healthy Teens Act, would award funding for school districts, boards of cooperative education services and community-based organizations to provide comprehensive sex education programs for young people. The NYCLU strongly supports this legislation.... Read More

Legislative Memo: The Family Health Care Decisions Act

The Family Health Care Decisions Act would permit an individual’s family members, domestic partners, and close friends to make health treatment decisions when that individual no longer has decision-making capacity. The bill would establish clear procedures for selecting a surrogate, thereby ensuring that patients receive the health care treatment they would choose even if incapable of expressing that choice. ... Read More

Legislative Memo: The Gender Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA)

New York’s civil rights laws are intended to promote the fundamental values that underlie our political system — including personal liberty, tolerance of diverse backgrounds and points of view, and respect for privacy. And above all else, civil rights laws should serve to protect members of minority groups most marginalized in our society. That protection should be available to individuals whether the defining factors of the minority group are race, ethnicity, national origin, disability, religious or political beliefs, sexual orientation, or gender identity or expression. ... Read More

Legislative Memo: The Electronic Security and Targeting of Online Predators Act (e-STOP)

This legislation proposes a broad regulatory scheme that is intended to address the “clear and present danger” posed by “sexual predator[s]” who engage in communication via the internet. The bill’s principal focus is the prevention of sex crimes against minors who access social networking websites. ... Read More

Legislative Memo: Congestion Pricing

The NYCLU has taken no position on the concept of a congestion pricing plan for Manhattan’s central business district. However, in public testimony presented before the New York City Traffic Congestion Mitigation Commission (the “Commission”) the NYCLU has stated that absent constraints upon the scope and operation of the video surveillance system, it could significantly undermine the personal privacy rights of New Yorkers. ... Read More