HB 300 would amend the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act (PHRA) to add explicit, statutory protections from discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity and expression.

HB 394 would expand access to courts by adding a venue for a statutory civil action in human trafficking lawsuits. Lawsuits could be brought either where the victim resides or where the violations occurred, making it easier for trafficking victims to bring civil lawsuits by expanding the venue (or places) where they can bring the suit.

HB 507 would require health care providers, when involved in professional instruction or clinical training, to obtain specific informed consent (both verbal and written), before performing a pelvic, rectal, or prostate examination while the patient is anesthetized or unconscious in a facility that provides health care services.

HB 689 would make drug felonies and some property-related felonies eligible for criminal record sealing, while shortening eligibility waiting periods. This new Clean Slate bill would help people with old criminal records improve their employment prospects and help Pennsylvania employers find candidates for jobs that they desperately need to fill.

HB 716 would allow a court to impose community service in lieu of payment for traffic fines for those without the ability to pay fines and costs. Although this is already permitted under current law, many MDJs mistakenly believe that community service can't be ordered to replace payment of traffic fines. HB 716 would provide an important clarification that community service is available for traffic offenses, giving MDJs more tools in their toolbox for people who cannot pay.

HB 815 would require that all candidates for office and political action committees (PACs) in Pennsylvania utilize the Department of State’s online filing system to electronically file campaign finance reports. Requiring electronic filing would not only improve government transparency and accountability, it would save the commonwealth money by reducing bureaucratic inefficiencies.

HB 841 would limit the types of offenses for which a juvenile must provide a DNA sample after being tried as an adult or adjudicated delinquent. The bill would also require automatic expungement of juvenile DNA samples, records, or profiles once an offense is eligible for expungement.

HB 1067 would amend the Public School Code to waive the citizenship requirement for teachers to allow qualified non-citizens—those with a valid immigrant visa, work visa or employment document—to be hired as teachers. As PA is facing a steep decline in its number of qualified teachers, HB 1067 would help alleviate this shortfall, expand employment opportunities for qualified residents, and ensure that Pennsylvania's teachers better reflect the diversity of the students in their classrooms.

HB 1085 would create an Indigent Defense Advisory Committee and a grant fund to support indigent defense. Pennsylvania remains the only state in the nation that fails to provide state-level funding for public defenders and instead requires that individual counties bear 100% of the financial burden to maintain their essential—and constitutionally required—public defense services.

PennDOT currently requires an applicant for REAL ID to provide an original Social Security card, but does not provide any other document options to verify a person's Social Security number. Pennsylvania is the only state that does not provide residents with alternative SSN verification options. HB 1243 would require PennDOT to accept additional documentation permitted under the federal REAL ID Act of 2005 to verify an applicant’s Social Security number when applying for REAL ID.

PN 2037 included negotiated language that offered increased privacy and constitutional protections.

The ACLU-PA was previously neutral on HB 1278, but Senate amendments gutted hard-fought language that was successfully negotiated between stakeholders. As a result, HB 1278 reinstates several problematic provisions‚ two in particular: (1) the broad permission it grants parole agents to intercept communications, including third parties who are not under supervision; and (2) the failure to limit how or when footage may be shared with outside law enforcement agencies.

HB 1289 would provide property owners or homeowner associations a streamlined process to repudiate unlawful restrictive covenants from their deeds. An unlawful restrictive covenant is defined as a provision that purports to restrict ownership or occupancy of real property based on a practice or policy of discrimination against individuals or groups covered under the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act.

HB 1394 would amend the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act to expand the definition of “race” to include traits associated with race, including hair texture and protective hairstyles. Protective hairstyles would include, but are not limited to, such hairstyles locs, braids, twists, coils, Bantu knots, afros and extensions. CROWN Act stands for Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair.

HB 1479 would provide IT accessibility standards for state and local government websites. Considering that online content is the primary way most people access government information, services, and their elected officials, HB 1479 would guarantee a more equitable and accessible experience for people with disabilities, while protecting Pennsylvanians’ right to open and transparent government.

HB 1700 would add federal judicial officers as protected officials under 18 § 2719 (endangering a public official). But federal judges are already protected under several offenses in the U.S. Code. Additionally, under the dual sovereignty doctrine, HB 1700 would enable prosecution of the same conduct under both state and federal law. Duplicating protections for federal judges under state law will only lead to excessive punishment and even more unnecessary and redundant laws.

SB 44 would expand the definition of trafficking in individuals to include those who “patronize” a person that may be subject to sexual servitude. Patronizing a victim of sexual servitude is already punishable as a third-degree felony because current law recognizes the difference between someone who is engaged in the process or business of trafficking and someone who patronizes a person being trafficked. SB 44 would erase this critical distinction.

SB 140 would create a "special prosecutor" under the Attorney General’s office who is responsible for prosecuting and investigating all crimes that occur on public transportation in Philadelphia. SB 140 is a brazen attempt to undermine the authority of one district attorney, in one city, to override the votes of every Philadelphian who elected him. It would also violate the PA Constitution, which prohibits the state from creating special laws that interfere with local authority.

SB 527 would create a new, duplicative offense that could already be charged under current law (theft by unlawful taking). Furthermore, it would treat acceptance of ARD as an adjudication of guilt to trigger penalty enhancements, likely violating constitutional guarantees of due process and the presumption of innocence.

SB 596 would amend the organized retail theft statute to drastically lower the thresholds for the retail value of stolen goods to make it easier to charge people with felonies. SB 596 is a bill that relies on demonstrably failed policies in response to an exaggerated “crisis.” If enacted, it would exacerbate existing racial and economic disparities in our criminal legal system, putting more people behind bars for longer.

SB 838 fails to meaningfully reform our broken probation system and changes current law in ways that risk making probation worse in PA by making it easier for judges to incarcerate people after revoking their probation and allowing judges to keep people on probation indefinitely for those who can't pay restitution in full. As such, SB 838 squanders a rare opportunity to meaningfully improve probation in Pennsylvania while threatening to exacerbate the problems that drive its dysfunction.