Governor Ralph Northam is now considering several dozen bills lawmakers sent during a two-month special session.
Lawmakers introduced 270 bills during the special session, and ended up sending the governor 56, covering everything from criminal justice reform to COVID relief.
Claire Gastanaga at the ACLU of Virginia gives it a mixed review.
“They had an opportunity in this session to do transformational things," she explains. "They didn’t transform anything, but they did make some positive, incremental changes.”
Lawmakers created an opportunity for civilian review of police departments but not sheriff’s offices. They banned use of some military equipment, although they’re still allowing for the partial militarization of police. They took action to prevent officers from using the smell of marijuana to initiate a search, but they have not legalized pot.
Advocates for criminal justice reform are pleased that judges will be allowed to sentence defendants in jury trials and that police won’t be able to engage in pretextual policing. But Stephen Haner at the Thomas Jefferson Institute says lawmakers didn’t take action to help the business climate.
“They didn’t do very much, and for the most part what they did, I think, was fairly negative,” says Haner.
Now, lawmakers are not expected to finish the special session until after the election, and any new laws won’t go into effect until four months after that. That means nothing they accomplished during the special session will become law until after lawmakers have finished their regular General Assembly session next year, giving them an opportunity to undo anything they’ve done or make changes to how it works.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
