The Second or Third Time Around

It’s the rare bill that gets enacted the first time it’s introduced.

This is the third year I’ve introduced legislation to repeal the death penalty. It’s the first year that Governor O’Malley has also sponsored the bill.

In his State of the State Address, the Governor asked the General Assembly to “follow me in abolishing an outdated, expensive, and utterly ineffective death penalty in Maryland.” He recognized the presence in the House chamber of Benjamin Civiletti, the chair of the Commission that studied the issue this past summer. Afterwards, the Senate President said the bill was likely to pass.

Lilly Ledbetter lost her discrimination case in the Supreme Court in 2007. Efforts to overturn that ruling in the Congress were thwarted by President Bush and a filibuster by the Republican minority in the Senate. A new President and more Democrats in the Senate sent the bill to a White House signing ceremony this Thursday.

Four years ago, I introduced a bill to add bloggers to Maryland’s shield law, which protects journalists from revealing their confidential sources. Last year, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee adopted a shield law that includes bloggers. This year, I’m reintroducing my bill, this time with the definition of blogging in the federal bill.