2025 General Assembly

In recent years we’ve worked with grassroots partners like Sistas in Prison Reform, Nolef Turns, and the Humanization Project to advocate for smart sentencing policies that would save taxpayers millions while investing in victim services and re-entry. We’re also advocating to reform the front-end of the criminal legal system, where pre-trial detention has ballooned Virginia’s local jail population. People who haven’t been convicted of a crime have fundamental rights to due process and attorney representation, and we’re fighting alongside partners make sure those rights are fully realized in the Commonwealth.

We also successfully pushed for a new independent oversight office to watchdog conditions at Virginia’s Department of Corrections facilities, and this year we’ll defend the progress we’ve made.

Bills we support:

• HB2222/SB1255: This bill seeks to end the default shackling of children in court.
  • Status: Approved by the governor.
• HB2217/SB1227: This bill would ensure that people have access to an attorney for their first appearance in court.
  • Status: Dead.

Bills we oppose:

• Budget item #390: This budget item is a repeat of the Governor’s 2024 proposal to eliminate eligibility for enhanced earned sentence credits for people serving “mixed” sentences, i.e., at least one sentence for a charge not eligible on its own for enhanced credits.

Bills we oppose (and defeated):

• SB1071: Eliminates enhanced earned sentence credits (ESC) for all felony drug offenses.
• SB1080: Eliminates ESC eligibility for certain inchoate and conspiracy charges.

That’s why we’re working to protect Virginians against mass surveillance, including by law enforcement using automated license plate readers to collect data on every car that drives by. Dragnet surveillance on our communities is a system rife for abuse, and just like any other mass surveillance, police should have to seek a warrant for data to invade Virginians’ privacy.

But we won't just be vigilant against efforts to infringe on the privacy of people in Virginia: we’re also vigilant about protecting Virginians’ right to free speech. This session, we’ll stand up for the right to protest and dissent, and we’ll oppose any bills that further censor books or ban the teaching of accurate, inclusive history in our schools.

Bills we support:

• HB2725: Clarifies definitions in current surveillance-technology reporting statute and adds technologies used or accessed by police but owned or licensed by a different agency or a private entity.
  • Status: Approved by the governor.

Bills we oppose:

• HB2724: Authorizes expansion of automatic license plate recognition systems (ALPRs) to Virginia’s 60,000 miles of state-maintained highways; permits use for “reasonable suspicion” of any crime; permits sharing ALPR data with other state or federal law enforcement pursuant to court order or subpoena duces tecum.
  • Status: Amended with recommendations by the governor, and sent back to the House.

Bills we oppose (and defeated):

• HB2400: Directs model DOE policies to restrict “sexually explicit” materials in school libraries
• HB2207/SB1284: Blanket ban on any access to a higher ed campus applied to “terrorist organizations,” “non-state sponsors of terrorism,” or people or groups deemed to have provided “material aid” so such a group
• HB1650: Similar scope to HB 2207, but creates cause of action for injuries arising from a terrorist act and creates a presumption of “material support” for the alleged terrorist organization based on any “transaction” with such group
• SB931: Removes exception to the criminal offense of obscenity that currently protects public schools and libraries
• SB906: Redefines independent expenditures in the Election Code to include pure issue advocacy communications by nonprofits and mandates disclosure of nonprofits’ donors as a disclaimer in such paid communications

People who are immigrants often face dire consequences and are denied their fundamental rights if they come into contact with law enforcement, because many local police departments coordinate with federal agencies. Even without being accused of a crime, people can be held in immigration detention facilities in conditions identical to prisons. And instead of being released to their families and communities after an arrest, they're often transferred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention and fast-tracked for deportation.

We have a long way to go, and small changes won’t cut it. We’re ready to defend immigrants in Virginia this legislative session, especially when it comes to abusive and dangerous conditions at immigration detention centers, and the jail-to-deportation pipeline in Virginia.

Bills we support:

• HB2560: This bill would advise defendants at initial hearing that adjudication may have collateral immigration consequences.
  • Status: Vetoed by the governor.

Bills we oppose:

• Budget Item #337: Governor’s proposal to withhold DCJS funding to local police in jurisdictions alleged not to cooperate with ICE.

Bills we oppose (and defeated):

• HB2298: Adds felony DUI to list of offenses, allowing ICE to take custody of accused from local jail.
• SB1141, HB1891, HB2354: Requires Virginia jails to comply with ICE detainer requests and absorb cost of transferring custody to ICE.
• HB2389: Blanket ban on “sanctuary” policies; includes mandatory transfer provision from SB 1141.
• SB1268, HB1885: Requires the Dept. of Juvenile Justice to investigate the immigration status of children in its custody, to report to ICE, and to enter into agreements with ICE to hold children for civil immigration purposes.
• HB2188: Purports to mandate ICE to take custody of certain people convicted in Virginia.
• HB2623: Makes localities adopting “sanctuary” policies waive sovereign immunity in personal injury actions alleging injury by an undocumented person.
• SB772, HB1651: Mandates immigration status inquiry upon application for public assistance to Dept of Social Services.

Everyone has the right to live their lives free from discrimination and harassment – regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity. The Supreme Court’s 2015 landmark ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges means that Virginia’s 2006 constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage can’t stop same-sex couples from marrying today. But if new members of the Court decided to overturn Obergefell, then the Virginia ban would go back into effect.

We can’t let that happen. That’s why it’s so crucial that we pass a new amendment getting this outdated ban off the books.

Bills we support:

• HJ9/SJ249: This amendment to the Virginia Constitution would guarantee that the Commonwealth recognizes any lawful marriage between two adults, irrespective of sex, gender, or race.
  • Status: Advanced to the next step.
• The Virginia Reproductive & Gender-Affirming Health Care Protection Act (SB1098): This bill would safeguard access to health care within the Commonwealth by restricting out-of-state subpoenas, demands for extradition, warrants, or criminal investigations related to the lawful provision or receipt of health care in Virginia.
  • Status: Dead.
• SB1052: This bill would extend Virginia Human Rights Act coverage to smaller employers
  • Status: Vetoed by the governor.

Bills we opposed (and defeated):

• SB749: Ban on trans athletes.
• HB2405: Blanket ban on gender-affirming surgical procedures for minor patients.
• HB2146: Lengthens statute of limitations to bring medical malpractice action arising from gender-affirming care.
• HB2182: Forced outing in schools.
• HB1079: Ban on trans athletes.
• HB2605: Provides for discrimination in health care and employment by health care providers based on a provider’s moral, ethical, or religious beliefs.

Everyone should be able to decide whether and when to have a child. Virginians – and people in neighboring states where reproductive rights are limited or even banned – need contraceptives and abortion care to remain legal and accessible in the Commonwealth.

As the last state in the South without an abortion ban, Virginia is a reproductive safe haven. The legislation below is key to making sure we stay that way.

Bills we support:

• HJ1/SJ247 – This amendment to the Virginia Constitution would enshrine a fundamental right of all Virginians to make their own reproductive health care decisions, and it would protect patients and providers from criminalization for seeking or providing care.
  • Status: Advanced to the next step.
• The Virginia Reproductive & Gender-Affirming Health Care Protection Act (SB1098): This bill would safeguard access to health care within the Commonwealth by restricting out-of-state subpoenas, demands for extradition, warrants, or criminal investigations related to the lawful provision or receipt of health care in Virginia.
  • Status: Dead.

Bills we oppose (and defeated):

• SB1066: Mandates false and misleading information in reproductive health curricula.
• HB2399: Mandates parental access to minors’ health records via online portal.
• HR454: Directs the Virginia House of Delegates to study the legal implications of HJ1.

The right to vote is the cornerstone of our democracy. Yet Virginia is one of only three states that automatically bans anyone convicted of a felony from voting for the rest of their lives. And Virginia is the only state that requires people who lose their voting rights to individually petition the governor to get them back.

Virginians should pick their leaders – but too often, Virginia’s leaders get to pick their voters. To fix that, we need the legislation below.

Bills we support:

• HJ2/SJ248 – This amendment to the Virginia Constitution would end permanent disenfranchisement of every Virginian convicted of a felony whose voting rights the governor hasn’t individually restored. It would also ensure no person loses their voting rights on the basis of mental incapacity unless a court makes a proper individualized finding, as required by the United States Constitution.
  • Status: Advanced to the next step.
• SB765/HB2746: This bill requires a court to make a finding of mental incompetence by clear and convincing evidence that the person is unable to communicate, with or without accommodations, an interest in participating in the voting process.
  • Status: Vetoed by the governor.

Bills we oppose (and defeated):

• HB2445, HB1573, and SB1072: Rollback of early voting from 45 days to 15 days.
• HB1574: Rollback of early voting for primaries only.
• HB2390: Rollback of early voting, plus new photo ID requirements.
• SB764/SB 1070: New photo ID requirements.
• HB1652: Repeals same-day registration; new photo ID requirements; rollback of early voting.
• HB2508: Restricts voter registration activities at schools; requires parental consent for students to participate.