The Westchester County Board of Legislators voted at their Monday, May 7 regular meeting to pass, as expected, the anti-free speech "Reproductive Healthcare Facilities Access Act" with a party-line vote of 10-7. The next step is County Executive Rob Astorino’s veto pen that will stop this serially ill-fated piece of legislation. The law could then be resusitated only by a 12-vote override. The votes as of now are not there.
The Democrat caucus and this bill’s supporters, a.k.a. the abortion lobby, are already doing a flashy end zone dance for public relations purposes. They know this Act is DOA. A dignified funeral would be more appropriate.
Passionate citizen testimonies on both sides last Monday and this week led to a lengthy presentation by Board member and Legislation Committee member and attorney, the Hon. James Maisano who voted ‘no’ and to recommit the law to Committee. He presented a starkly troublesome overview of this now-passed law. In short he referred to the law as “sloppy work, poorly drafted, mistake”.
Here is a link to the video of the entire Legislative meeting; the highlight is Maisano's demolition of the Bill:
Anti-free speech legislation debate and commentary
Here is the Journal News' reporting on the vote:
http://www.lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2012305070135
Here is the written statement Mr. Maisano released prior to the meeting:
Legislator Mary Jane Shimsky offered her rebuttal to Maisano's very damning presentation on this law’s readiness, asserting instead that they had done extensive preparatory work and “narrowly tailored” the bill to its current form. Ms. Shimsky offered the standard pro-abortion line that the issue is about healthcare for women and not aimed at the speech, prayer, or First Amendment witness of pro-lifers.
Today the Westchester Legislator’s website characterized the passage in only glowing terms, making no reference to the level of dissent and disagreement both within the Board and from the public at large. No reference was made to the fact that this legislation will likely not pass the County Executive’s veto, and that the necessary votes are currently not there for override.
There was a great deal of questions left unanswered. Proper legal protocols for the law within Committee were apparently not followed with regard to this new bill in a new legislative session. Requests by members of the Legislation Committee for more extensive review of changes were turned down, even with three new members now on board. One hour was given to the new local law before bringing it to public hearing. Legal points in the law are, according to Mr. Maisano, seriously “ legally flawed”. Most importantly the law, he said, is unbalanced in its approach to defendants who alone are penalized with attorney's fees, etc. even when frivolous lawsuits are brought against them, and that could include churches who sponsor or encourage public witness. Some proponents of the law on the Board who are lawyers downplayed these charges as they encouraged passage despite legal concerns, perhaps calculating its inevitable veto.
We must ask those Legislators who voted “yes” on this latest version of the law if this is how they conduct business on a regular basis. We vote these Legislators into office and they should be held accountable. Thanks must go to those Legislators in the Republican caucus who fought hard to defend our rights in the face of so many unsubstantiated claims of violent and harrassing behaviors and the worst fearmongering tactics.
This unnecessary law will go down primarily because it is bad law - badly crafted, bad for the County, and bad for the County's citizens.
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