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During the 2023-2024 legislative session, the ACLU of Massachusetts and our partners fought hard to shore up civil liberties for people in our state. There’s a lot to reflect on, but first, we want to say thank you: ACLU supporters sent tens of thousands of messages to legislators this year — your texts, calls, and emails made a difference and helped move freedom forward. We also want to thank legislators — especially our main sponsors and key committee chairs — who worked to advance civil liberties and civil rights this session.

Despite some notable victories thanks to our supporters and legislative champions, the Legislature failed to get a range of critical bills over the finish line before formal sessions ended on July 31, leaving many issues of profound importance to Massachusetts residents unresolved.

It’s not unusual for lawmakers in the Bay State to leave a lot of important business until the last minute. Historically, some version of the same story plays out every two years — a year and a half of hearings and deliberation before a burst of productivity in July. 

Unfortunately, however, this July was different: The House and Senate did not agree to final language on most of the bills they were actively working on. Instead, they sent only a handful of bills to Governor Healey’s desk. Then, with major bills pending to address the opioid crisis, climate change, workers’ rights, economic development, and more, the Legislature abruptly adjourned, leaving advocates and Beacon Hill veterans stunned and disappointed.

It’s rare for so many critical bills to stumble simultaneously at the finish line. And despite procedural options to continue lawmaking during the remainder of the calendar year, it is exceedingly rare for the Legislature to return, and even more rare for them to take up complex legislation in so-called informal session.

The ACLU and fellow advocates will continue to encourage legislative leaders to find ways to pass additional, meaningful reforms in the coming months. With an election in November that could jeopardize our democracy and severely impact our civil rights and civil liberties, Massachusetts deserves better. That’s why the ACLU will never stop pushing for legislation that embodies the best of what our Commonwealth can be.

Let’s take stock of the session from an ACLU perspective.

Technology for Liberty

• Face surveillance: We sought to pass a bill that would codify commonsense recommendations from a bipartisan legislative commission on facial recognition. The bill made it out of committee but sadly, neither chamber took it up before the clock ran out.
• Location Shield Act: This bill would ban the sale of cellphone location data, which, when exploited, exposes us all to the risk of harassment and surveillance. While the House took positive steps towards a limited version of this proposal, lawmakers ultimately missed an opportunity to protect everyone in Massachusetts. The Senate failed to pass their own version of the bill. 
• Massachusetts Data Privacy Act: This expansive bill would provide best-in-the-nation data privacy protections for consumers. We were thrilled when, earlier this year, it was advanced with a favorable report by a legislative committee specializing in information technology. While it was never taken up for debate, the fact that such a comprehensive bill was voted out of committee is an extremely positive sign. 
• Responsible robotics: Born of an exciting partnership between the ACLU of Massachusetts and industry leaders, this bill would prohibit the manufacture and operation of armed drones and robots. The Senate adopted this proposal as part of its economic development bill, but lawmakers failed to reach consensus on that overall vehicle. 

Public Health

• Overdose prevention centers: This bill would allow municipalities the option to approve and establish local overdose prevention centers, a response to the opioid crisis that’s sorely needed and proven to save lives. In a historic first, the Senate passed this bill, which itself is an immense achievement for longtime advocates. Sadly, the Legislature failed to agree on an overall bill to address substance use disorder. 
• Pre-natal substance exposure: Advocates and state agencies agree on legislation to stop the automatic filing of abuse or neglect reports for any form of prenatal substance exposure, including when a pregnant person is taking prescribed medication for substance use disorder. The House passed this bill as part of an important substance use and recovery reform package, but the Legislature did not agree on final language. 
• Involuntary commitment (Section 35) reforms: The ACLU of Massachusetts, along with mental health, substance use, and prisoners’ rights advocates, have long pushed to end the inappropriate commitment of people in need of treatment to carceral facilities instead of community-based treatment centers. This effort advanced as part of the substance use bill passed by the House, but did not receive final approval. 

Smart Justice

• No-cost phone calls for incarcerated people: This bill eliminates fees for phone calls from prisons and jails, a crucial step toward equity and stronger community connections for incarcerated people and their loved ones. After many years of powerful activism, Governor Healey signed this bill into law in November 2023 — making Massachusetts the fifth state to achieve such a victory. 
• Raise the age: This bill raises the age at which young people may be tried as adults in criminal court — an evidence-based proposal that is both critical for juvenile justice and based on a large body of scientific research. A version of this legislation was adopted as part of the Senate’s economic development bill, but this measure ultimately failed to advance before the session ended.
• Debts and driving: An ongoing priority for the ACLU of Massachusetts, this bill would end the practice of suspending drivers' licenses based on unpaid fines and fees that are unrelated to driving safety. Unfortunately, this legislation did not advance out of committee, so we will renew our advocacy next session. 

Housing and Education

• Eviction sealing: In a significant housing bond bill, the Legislature passed a measure to protect Massachusetts tenants from having eviction records held against them when they look for new housing. For the first time ever, tenants will be able to petition to seal records of no-fault evictions, cases found in favor of the tenant, or dismissals. There is more work to be done in this area, but these reforms have the potential to make a major difference in the lives of low-income tenants of color — especially Black women, who face significantly higher rates of eviction than other groups.
• Access to counsel: In another major first, the Commonwealth’s FY25 budget will begin to fund statewide legal representation for tenants facing the threat of eviction. Keeping people in their homes is the easiest way to improve housing stability. 
• Ending home equity theft: Massachusetts tax foreclosure laws were found unconstitutional for allowing municipalities to sell a person’s home and take the entire value of the property, even when the homeowner owed a smaller amount in back taxes. We joined other housing advocates to fix this problem — and pass additional protections to help vulnerable homeowners from losing their property in the first place. 
• Common Start (early education and care): As a proud member of the Common Start Coalition, we celebrate the passage of unprecedented investments in early childhood education and care, including both supports for early educators and expanded eligibility for child care subsidies. These reforms bring us several steps closer to making high-quality, affordable, and accessible early education and care a reality for all families in Massachusetts. 
• Free community college: Passed as part of the state budget, this welcome policy enabling all state residents to attend community college at no cost could address longstanding barriers to entry for low-income students. The ACLU of Massachusetts celebrates this important milestone for equity.

Reproductive Equity & LGBTQ Equality 

• *UPDATE* Parentage Act: In a significant victory for all families, the Legislature passed the Parentage Act, which simplifies how LGBTQ people and people who use IVF are recognized as parents under the law. We congratulate our partners who fought so hard for this legislation.
• *UPDATE* Maternal health: In another significant victory, this bill — which expands access to midwifery care, birth centers, and other reproductive health care services — passed unanimously during an informal session. Along with our partners in the Bay State Birth Coalition, we are thrilled to see these vital reproductive equity reforms become law, and we thank our fellow advocates for their tireless work.

Defending Democracy

• Open meeting access for all: This bill would require hybrid access to open meetings in cities and towns across the Commonwealth, promoting equity and accessibility. Despite a strong bill making it out of committee, lawmakers failed to take this issue up. 
• Voting access reforms: The ACLU, along with coalition partners, advocated for a range of initiatives to improve ballot access this session. While the Senate adopted one element of our voting rights agenda, none of our priority reforms made it to the Governor’s desk. 

WHAT’S NEXT?

The work of protecting and expanding civil liberties never stops, and we rely on our supporters, partners, and volunteers to help us year-round. We need your help to redouble our efforts to defend civil rights and civil liberties for everyone in the Commonwealth. Please sign up to join us.

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• Read more about Takeaways from the 2023-2024 legislative session

By David Benoit, Racial Justice Community Advocate at the ACLU of Massachusetts

Growing up as a young Black boy in Massachusetts, the holiday Juneteenth was not part of my early education. For many Americans across the nation, Black history — especially recounts of Black triumph and liberation — is not always prominent in curricula. In some states, it’s even censored. The teaching of a Texas-born "Jubilee Day," now widely referred to as “Juneteenth,” is no exception.  

Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, a historic day of celebration on which the Union army arrived in Galveston, Texas and emancipated the state’s enslaved population — two years after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.  

What has long served as the oldest known celebration commemorating the end of 246 years of legalized chattel enslavement in the U.S. is now also a federally recognized holiday, marking 159 years of Black freedom as of 2024.  

As we approach the third federally recognized Juneteenth, we eagerly anticipate celebrating with communities throughout Massachusetts. But how do we properly commemorate the complex birth of emancipation that brought about new waves of racial prejudice and legalized discrimination through racist policies like the Jim Crow laws that followed?  

Even as the ratification of constitutional amendments abolished chattel slavery, granted citizenship for the formerly enslaved, and granted African American men the right to vote within five years of the first Juneteenth celebration, political empowerment of Black individuals was and still is systemically restrained.  

Here in Massachusetts, which holds a complex, yet rich history of antebellum abolition and Black organization, the ACLU of Massachusetts approaches Juneteenth with both joy for our Commonwealth’s journey towards freedom and recognition of our ability to further redefine what the future of freedom means for Black Bay Staters. True liberty, including dismantlement of racial inequity within our society, demands our undivided attention towards the troubles that our communities currently face — not least those that relate to voting rights and health care. 

Voting Rights  

Though some of the earliest “Jubilee Day” celebrations were used as education opportunities to inform new citizens of their right to vote, racist barriers to electoral participation during the Reconstruction era included the use of poll taxes, arduous literary tests, and dehumanizing political violence that followed Black Americans for generations, into the 20th century Civil Rights Movement and beyond. Today, one of the greatest threats to democracy is still voter suppression. 

As we approach the 2024 election season, the ACLU — here in Massachusetts and nationwide — continues to work to defend our democracy, including by building Black political power. Together with partners in the Election Modernization Coalition, this legislative session we have proudly supported efforts in the state House and Senate to remove one longstanding barrier to ballot access by ending the punitive practice of placing voters on the “inactive voter” list for not returning the municipal census. Every election cycle, thousands of people are placed on the inactive voter list, preventing them from casting their ballot without showing proof of residency. This causes confusion and delays at the polls and disenfranchises qualified voters who do not have ID in hand. Requiring voters to jump through hoops to vote because of an unrelated administrative requirement has its roots in poll taxes from the 1800’s. It’s time to remove the obsolete obstacle, and the legislature finally has the opportunity to do so by embracing reforms proposed in the Senate budget.  

But the ACLU’s work on voting rights isn’t just happening in the Legislature. As we honor the historic Black communities across the Commonwealth who bravely voiced their struggles against voter suppression and disillusionment this Juneteenth, we’re also uplifting the hopes, dreams, and demands of contemporary communities of color. And there’s no better time to join us.  

Join the BIPOC to the BALLOT BOX team

Now in its second year, BIPOC To the Ballot Box is a powerful voter education and engagement initiative led by the ACLU of Massachusetts Racial Justice Program. Together with our Action Team volunteers and canvassers, we’ve knocked on thousands of doors and spoken with thousands of voters in cities and towns with large or growing communities of color. This includes those voters who are registered but don’t show up to the polls.  

One of our primary tasks is to figure out why people feel so disengaged from the democratic process. What we’ve heard so far is that people care deeply about several issues, but don’t feel like their vote matters. One of those issues is voter suppression. Another major topic people raised is health care disparities, a problem with roots tracing back to the horrific legacies of the antebellum period. 

Health Care 

Across the U.S, racial inequities in our health care systems highlight longstanding failures to provide adequate medical treatment for Black individuals, particularly Black mothers. Dating back to the "Act Prohibiting the Importation of Slaves" issued in 1808, the intersection of medicine and Black health was manipulated by white slaveowners to perpetuate generational slavery across plantations.  

Throughout this period, an estimated 50 percent of infants birthed by enslaved individuals were stillborn or died within the first year. At the same time, enslaved Black women and Black mothers were denied personhood and exploited as medical test subjects through experimentation, which was historically justified by racist notions of increased pain tolerance for Black bodies and exacerbated by a lack of legal protections for the enslaved.  

These harrowing historical records cast a long shadow on the current realities of institutionalized medicine and its impact on the Black community today, especially found through recorded dismissals of pain and suffering for Black women within obstetric and gynecological sciences. We must eliminate barriers to equitable health care and acknowledge the socially embedded disparities within our health institutions, particularly concerning Black morbidity and infant mortality rates. This issue is especially important in a state like Massachusetts, which prides itself on a reputation of excellence in medical research and provision of care.  

We know that restrictions on reproductive health care continue to disproportionately impact BIPOC people, and especially Black women and children. In Boston, for example, Black infants die at a rate more than double the citywide average — and more than three times as often as white infants. The ACLU of Massachusetts, including our Racial Justice program, advocates for the full spectrum of reproductive health care for all people, including birth choices that lead to racial equity and bodily autonomy.  

As Massachusetts's legislative session ends, the ACLU and our partners are working hard to pass legislation to combat our state's maternal health crisis, including by providing critical access to birth centers and midwifery care. In recent years, the legislature has dedicated increasing attention to issues of maternal health equity, and we urge them to seize the opportunity of this Juneteenth season to enact comprehensive reforms. 

For those formerly enslaved people in Galveston, “Jubilee Day” in 1865 heralded a new reality, a watershed moment of Black American history. This day marks the beginning of a new odyssey towards the birth of a culture defined by freedom, faith, and community — a life that many enslaved individuals dreamed of for generations. For me, Juneteenth 2024 symbolizes the potential for even newer realities, where we advance further in our ongoing fight against the disenfranchisement and systemic disparities our community has endured for far too long. 

Join us in this pursuit, and stand alongside those who, like the trailblazers before us, have paved the way for our progress. 

Happy Juneteenth.  

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• Read more about Juneteenth 2024: Celebrating the Past and Redefining the Future of Freedom in Massachusetts

One year ago, artist Hank Willis Thomas unveiled his sculpture, "The Embrace," honoring the legacies of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King. The work stands as a celebration of the couple’s historical significance — but also an enduring commitment to advancing racial justice within the city of Boston. 

What is the Action Team?

The ACLU of Massachusetts Action Team is powered by volunteers working in their local communities and at the state level to protect and expand civil rights and civil liberties. 

If you are looking to advocate for civil rights and civil liberties but don’t know where to start, the Action Team is the perfect place for you!  

Learn More!

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• Read more about Finding the courage to be change-makers in our communities