The 2016 session of the Washington Legislature began on January 11. This is the 60-day “short session” of the state’s two-year legislative cycle. Democrats continue to control the House by a slim margin while Republicans control the Senate by a small margin, so bipartisan support is essential for bills to pass.
Looming over the session is the continuing need to provide adequate funding for public schools to comply with the State Supreme Court’s McCleary ruling, as well as more funding for our state’s seriously deficient mental health system. At the same time, numerous lesser-profile but important bills are pending. Among them are several priority civil liberties measures that did not pass last session which are still alive for consideration – most notably bills for abolishing the death penalty, ending debtors’ prisons, and strengthening voting rights at the local level. Here are some key measures on which the ACLU-WA is working. For the full text and progress of bills, see the state legislative website below.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
Replacing the Death Penalty – HB 1739, SB 5639
Support
Status: Bill did not advance out of committee
Our criminal justice system should treat all people equally. Yet the death penalty is applied unevenly in our state, depending on a defendant’s race and the county in which the crime was committed. Further, scientific studies have shown that the capital punishment does not deter crime more than long sentences. And pursuing the death penalty has not proven to be effective: since its reinstatement in in Washington in 1981, nearly 80 percent of death sentences have been overturned in cases that reached final disposition.
The risk of executing an innocent person means that the death penalty system must have safeguards, and these are costly. Capital cases require additional resources for investigation, case preparation, jury selection, trial, sentencing, and appellate review. A rigorous study by Seattle University criminologists recently found that the average total costs to the justice system related to pursuit of the death penalty were over $1 million more per case than in similar non-death penalty cases.
The death penalty has failed Washington as a public policy. Instead of trying to fix an unfixable system, the legislature should replace it with a life sentence with no possibility of release.
Ending Debtors’ Prisons – HB 1390
Support
Status: Passed House 97-0, pending in Senate
The state’s unfair, burdensome, and unproductive system for Legal Financial Obligations (LFOs) is greatly in need of reform. LFOs are fees, fines, costs, and restitution imposed by courts on top of criminal sentences. Interest accrues on this debt at 12% a year, even while a person is incarcerated. As a result, poor people remain tethered to the criminal justice system for years.
Individuals who have otherwise served their sentences can be arrested and jailed for not paying LFOs. While this sanction is supposed to be reserved for willful refusal to pay, all too often courts lock up people who simply are unable to pay – creating modern-day debtors’ prisons. Further, restitution to victims is not prioritized: Some courts take their share of LFO payments first, to fund their own collection systems, before any money is allotted to the restitution of victims of crime and their families.
The bill would help create a fair and workable system by prioritizing the collection of LFOs for restitution to victims; setting clear standards for determining a person's ability to pay; eliminating the current 12% interest rate; stopping interest from accruing while a person is incarcerated; and prohibiting forced collection of funds received from needs-based public assistance programs.
Questions and Answers about LFOs
POLICE ACCOUNTABILITY
Police Use of Force – HB 2907
Support
Status: Did not pass out of committee
Cameras alone are not sufficient to bring accountability to law enforcement. State law must be revised to enable prosecutors to hold police officers more accountable for use of deadly force. The current law makes prosecutors exceedingly unwilling to file charges against police and thereby makes it almost impossible to hold police accountable for wrongfully killing civilians. Prosecutors should not be limited to bringing charges only in cases where they believe that the officer acted with "malice".
Law enforcement officers have a responsiblity to use deadly forceonly when absolutely necessary to protect themselves or others against serious bodily hard. Whenever possible they shoudl find ways to de-escalate encounters with civilians and use alternatives to deadly force. HB 2907 would enable prosecutors to bring criminal charges against officers who use unconstitutional, excessive force. And it would provide clear guidance to officers about when they can and cannot legally use force.
Police Body Cameras
Support Creation of Task Force
Status: HB 2362 passed House and Senate, sent to Governor
Body cameras can be an effective tool for police accountability, but only with strong regulations to ensure they are used for that purpose and not for general surveillance and prosecution of minor crimes. Officers should be required to keep cameras on at all times while on duty, with very narrow exceptions. There should be clear consequences for failure to comply with the regulations, as well as regular audits.
We need a state-level floor for policies on the use of body cameras. If these are left solely to local police departments, there is a strong risk that the cameras won't be used to further accountability, and could even undermine it. And such policies may also erode privacy and promote broad surveillance of innocent people, including those in communities of color who are already over-surveilled.
The ACLU-WA does not support a measure (HB 2362) that does not restrict the purposes for which body camera footage can be used and does not adequately address the risks body cameras pose to personal privacy. The legislature should not settle for an inadequate law that will allow body cameras to be misused. Instead, it should form a task force with a mandate to develop comprehensive legislation, and that includes opportunities for communities of color to participate.
Warrantless School Searches - SB 6230
Oppose
Status: Did not advance in the Senate
The Constitution bars unreasonable search and seizure, which is why police officers need a search warrant to go through someone's belongings. But school personnel have traditionally been exempted from that requirement. This bill adds police working as school resource officers (SROs) to the exception, authorizing them to serach students, their possesions, or their lockers if there are "reasonable grounds" to suspect that the search will yield evidence of a violation of the law or school rules.
By giving police in schools an exception to the search rules both when they are investigating violation of school rules and when they are investigating other violations of the law, this bill effectively gives SROs free rein to conduct searches. Doing so would fuel the school to prison pipeline, further entrenching SROs in routine school disciplinary activities and heightening the likelihood that students will be subject to criminal prosecution for mino misbehavior at school.
VOTING RIGHTS
Strengthening Voting Rights – HB 1745
Support
Status: Passed House 50-47, pending in Senate
In a healthy democracy, all voices need to be heard. But in some jurisdictions in Washington, outdated election systems prevent all communities from being represented in local government. While the federal Voting Rights Act has been an important tool for defending voting rights, Washington needs its own, more flexible law.
The Washington Voting Rights Act (WVRA) empowers local governments to take the lead in fixing election systems that exclude some communities from having a voice in local government. It provides a roadmap, data, and timetables for jurisdictions to avoid litigation, and provides a fair process for when litigation becomes necessary. Its adoption would strengthen local democracy and makes governments more accountable.
LGBT RIGHTS
Discrimination Against Transgender People – HB 2589, SB 6443
Oppose
Status: SB 6443 defeated in Senate 25-24
For a decade, Washington law has prohibited discrimination against transgender people in places of public accommodation. The State Human Rights Commission recently issued regulations which clarify that the law means transgender people should be able to use gender-segregated facilities, such as restrooms and locker rooms, consistent with their gender identity. Transgender people have already been safely using bathrooms and locker rooms that match the gender they live, and the regulations simply provide guidance for those seeking to understand the law.
The bill would amend the state’s law against discrimination to allow public and private entities to discriminate against transgender people by restricting their access to gender-segregated facilities based on their genitalia. It is already illegal to enter a bathroom or locker room for the purpose of harming someone or invading someone’s privacy. Everyone cares about bathroom safety and privacy, but this bill would take away transgender people’s ability to decide which bathroom is most appropriate and safe for them to use.
ACLU-WA Testimony Opposing SB 6443
WOMEN’S RIGHTS
Pregnant Workers Fairness Act – HB 2307, SB 6149
Support
Status: Passed House 52-45, pending in Senate
Women shouldn’t have to choose between healthy pregnancies and their livelihoods. According to the National Partnership for Women and Families, a majority of pregnant workers need an accommodation, such as a change in schedule or work duties or additional bathroom breaks. Yet more than 40 percent of all pregnant workers never asked for such accommodations, and one in 10 of those who did ask were denied.
The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act would require employers to provide pregnant workers with reasonable work accommodations, such as temporary assignment to light duty, additional bathroom breaks, and schedule flexibility to accommodate doctor appointments. Its adoption would protect women, improve infant health outcomes, and combat unequal treatment. Fifteen states, the District of Columbia, and four cities already have passed laws requiring reasonable accommodations to pregnant workers and protecting them from retaliation when they request accommodations.
REPRODUCTIVE FREEDOM
Access to Contraceptives – HB 2465
Support
Status: Passed House 91-6, pending in Senate
A significant percentage of pregnancies are unintended and could be averted with broader access to health care and effective contraception. Research has found that dispensing contraceptives every 12 months, rather than every 28 days, helps people take them more regularly, thereby making the contraceptives more effective. This bill would improve access to contraceptives by requiring private health insurers and Medicaid to reimburse for a 12-month supply of contraceptive drugs at one time. It allows health plan enrollees to receive the contraceptive drugs all at once, on-site at the provider’s office, if available.
The bill would benefit both individuals and the tax-paying public. Providing broader access to contraceptive drugs for women covered by Medicaid programs could prevent as much as a quarter of unintended pregnancies and would result in an estimated $4 million in savings per biennium for Washington health care programs.
Severely Restricting Abortion Rights – HB 2294
Oppose
Status: Did not advance in House
Adopted 25 years ago via a statewide voter initiative, the Reproductive Privacy Act ensures the fundamental right of women to choose or refuse to have an abortion. The measure prohibits the state from providing benefits or services to permit a woman to voluntarily terminate her pregnancy. It would essentially gut this vital law by disallowing state funding for most abortions. It includes only a very narrow exception for terminations deemed “medically necessary,” defined as where the life of the woman is in imminent danger because of a serious physical disorder, illness, or injury if the abortion is not performed.
Further, the bill’s broad provisions could even deny funding to organizations that do not provide abortions but have any type of relationship with an organization that does provide abortions (i.e., if the organization is affiliated with or even just indirectly provides consideration to an entity that provides abortions).
FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION
Protections for Student Journalists - SB 6233
Support
Status: Did not advance in Senate
A free and uncensored press is essential to democracy. Student journalists need protections against censorship, lest school officials suppress content which tackles controversial topics or portrays the school in an unfavorable light. this bill clarifies the rights and responsiblities of student journalists to ensure they have greater control over the content of their publications. The measure also makes it unlawful to fire school newspaper advisers for not censoring student journalists.
It is modeled after a law North Dakota lawmakers passed last year in order to temper the effects of 1988 US Supreme Court ruling, Hazelwood School District v Kuhlmeier, which said school administrators can limit expression as long as it is "reasonably related to a legitimate pedagogical concern." Recognizing the particular conditions of high schools, the bill allows school administrators to restrict speech in limited situations - when it is libelous, slanderous or otherwise illegal, or incites students to disrupt school operations. In order to forecast such a disruptions, a school must cite specific facts; it cannot be based on a generalized fear. Nine states currently have student freedom of exression laws.
OTHER BILLS
The ACLU-WA is working on many other measures in Olympia. We support bills to establish an ombudsman for the Dept. of Corrections and to vacate convictions for certain prior marijuana offenses. We oppose proposals to collect DNA on arrest, to loosen standards for searches of public school students, and to gut the Reproductive Privacy Act by prohibiting state funding for most abortions. See the ACLU-WA website to learn more, and for updates on the progress of our priority bills.
