The Senate Committee on the Judiciary met Monday afternoon to discuss two Senate bills and one House bill on the Committee agenda.
Senate Bill 574 would permit members of a hospital medical staff to order an involuntary hospitalization of a person who is present at the hospital if the physician believes that the individual is addicted or mentally ill and because of the addiction or mental illness is likely to cause serious harm to themselves or to others if allowed to remain at liberty. Senator Lindsay (D – Kanawha, 8) proposed an amendment that would require physicians to do an evaluation of an individual before they could be involuntary held, which was adopted.
House Bill 2547 would this bill would fix an oversight with regard to the electioneering prohibition zone from last year’s legislation shrinking that zone from 300 to 200 feet to comport with Federal precedent. The original bill brought it down to within 100 feet, but the Committee adopted an amendment by Senator Baldwin (D – Greenbrier, 10) to only lower it to 200 feet.
Senate Bill 414 would create the Protect Our Right to Unite Act. The bill would provide protection of privacy of association, enforcement by state or citizen action, damages, and attorney’s fees.
The Committee passed all three bills, and will be reported to the full Senate to be voted upon.
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