NYCLU Releases Report Highlighting State Legislative Priorities for First 100 Days

NEW YORK- The New York Civil Liberties Union today released The First 100 Days: A Path to a Fairer New York, a report outlining key legislative initiatives that the New York State legislature should focus on in the first 100 days of the next legislative session.

With new leadership in Albany, the New York State legislature has an opportunity to set forth an agenda that helps all New Yorkers. 

The NYCLU’s agenda includes legislation to:

• Protect our democracy by updating antiquated voting laws and enacting early voting, no excuse absentee balloting, and electronic poll books
• Safeguard reproductive rights and personal autonomy by passing the Reproductive Health Act, removing abortion from New York’s criminal code, and giving people who are dying the right to a peaceful death
• Achieve equal justice under the law by passing reform legislation on bail, discovery, and speedy trial, adopting mechanisms to hold police accountable and legalizing marijuana
• Fight hate by passing the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act prohibiting discrimination against trans and gender non-conforming people, allowing immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses, and finally affording farmworkers basic rights on the job
• Stand up for children by restoring New York’s anti-discrimination protections to public schools and banning the use of invasive, inaccurate, unregulated, and biased facial recognition technology in public schools. 

“It’s a new day in New York. With changed leadership in Albany, our state legislature has the opportunity – and the mandate – to transform New York into the state that we’ve always envisioned, one that secures fairness and equality for all New Yorkers,” said Donna Lieberman, Executive Director of the New York Civil Liberties Union. “President Trump has made it abundantly clear that his administration will continue to undermine the principles that uphold our democracy, but we can resist by making New York a beacon for humane values and democracy.”

The first 100 days of next year’s session could prove critical for lawmakers in determining what kind of legislature that they want to be. The report urges state lawmakers to pass legislation that has previously stalled in Albany, as well as newer proposals that are urgently needed to protect New York’s immigrant communities and children. 

View the report