Our policy team is a constant presence in Salem and local municipalities to pass bills that advance or defend civil liberties and civil rights, and to defeat those that do not. In addition to our mission to defend and advance civil liberties and civil rights, we are committed to:
The perennial attempt to amend the Oregon Constitution’s free expression provision (Article I, section 8) to allow local governments to restrict nude dancing once again was introduced this session.
The Oregon Legislature held its second experimental supplemental session in February. As we wrote after the first supplemental session in 2008, “the brevity of the session made it almost impossible for public interest organizations like ACLU to play a meaningful role.” Our latest experience, if anything, was even more frustrating than two years ago, including an extremely limited opportunity to provide testimony on significant policy issues. Starting on February 1, the 2010 supplemental session went until February 25, still shy of the one month schedule.
To see how your legislators voted on civil iiberties issues, see ACLU of Oregon's Cumulative 2009 & 2010 Legislative Scorecard.
To read about the ACLU of Oregon's work in the last full legislative session, see 2009 Legislature: Ambitious ACLU Agenda Approved.
The Oregon Legislature approved five ACLU of Oregon priority bills this year, including SB 536, which prohibits Oregon from taking any further action to implement the federal Real ID Act. With passage of SB 536, Oregon became the 24th state to take action against Real ID.
In addition to our affirmative priorities, we had a very busy session tracking hundreds of other bills, most of which would have undermined civil liberties. We testified on more than 50 bills and worked closely on many others to address civil liberties concerns.
Our biggest disappointment was the passage of SB 355, which will create a government-monitored pharmacy database to track the millions of lawful prescriptions of controlled substances issued to Oregonians for all kinds of medical conditions.
Among other issues we covered were: free speech, privacy, reproductive freedom, the death penalty, criminal justice, drug policy and election and initiative reform.
Read our full 2009 legislative report
Review how your legislators ranked on civil liberties issues - download our 2009 Legislative Scorecard here.
In the February 2010 supplemental session, the Oregon Legislature repealed ORS 342.650, which prohibited public school teachers from wearing religious dress in the classroom.
The ACLU of Oregon urged the Legislature to postpone consideration of repeal until 2011. Repealing this law will likely affect the religious neutrality of our public schools and we believe it is essential to fully understand the legal ramifications before taking action.
This session, ACLU testified in support of two initiative reform bills, both of which passed, and in opposition to a third bill that would have set a tight deadline for the Oregon Supreme Court to act on ballot title challenges.
As we anticipated, a number of bills were introduced to allow employers to terminate an employee who is a medical marijuana cardholder without any evidence of actual impairment on the job. The ACLU opposed HB 2497, HB 2881 and HB 3052 (and had concerns about HB 2503) because in one form or another the bills included this type of power for employers.