Big Day at the DC Council

The DC Council’s penultimate meeting of the year took place on December 7, 2010.  Of ACLU interest:

Bill 18-63, Residential Tranquility, passed on final reading without amendment or debate.  We opposed this bill.

Bill 18-425, Disorderly Conduct: the Council passed on final reading this overhaul of the District's antiquated and abused disorderly conduct law. We supported this bill.

Bill 18-893, the Anti-SLAPP Act, passed on final reading without dissent, after the Council accepted three clarifying amendments that we had suggested or endorsed. We supported this bill.

Bill 18-716, the Open Meetings Amendment Act, passed on first reading after having been amended to make it clear that the DC Council is covered by the law. We supported this bill and the amendment.

Bill 18-826, the Returning Citizen [i.e., ex-offender] Public Employment Inclusion Act was passed without dissent.  This is a trimmed-down version, applying only to jobs with the DC government, and it will not be codified in the Human Rights Act but somewhere else in the Code. We supported this bill, although we wanted something much stronger.

Our testimony on each of these bills can be found by clicking on the links above.