“It’s clear that states are the last line of defense against the dystopian reality being pushed across America,” Stewart-Cousins said on the Senate floor early this morning.
It would make local governments with a recent history of discriminating against certain groups of voters - including New York City - get the approval of the state Attorney General’s Office before making decisions about how they operate elections.Īnd they backed a series of measures that would strengthen New York’s existing reproductive rights laws and would prepare to support out-of-state abortion seekers should the Supreme Court strike down Roe v. Lewis Voting Rights Act, a bill that civil rights advocates say would create the strongest protections against racial discrimination in elections of any state in the country. Last night they passed a package of new gun restrictions tightening New York’s already strict laws in response to the shootings in Texas and Buffalo. The session was characterized by Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins as “responsive,” one where state Democrats were able to “rise to the occasion, every occasion” as they seek to shield party goals from an increasingly uncertain federal landscape. What's still up in the air? The Clean Slate legislation to seal many criminal records after people complete their sentences. The Assembly is scheduled to reconvene this morning at 9:30 a.m. That’s already been passed by the Assembly and will now head to Gov. You could say the ban … returned from the crypt? (We’ll show ourselves out.) after reviving and passing a zombie bill - one that was assumed to be dead until just hours before - to impose a two-year moratorium on digital currency mining at fossil fuel power plants. The Senate adjourned for the year around 2:30 a.m. The Legislature is officially in overtime.