It’s 2025, and we have a lot to do during this legislative session. The ACLU of Connecticut will continue to fight for civil rights and liberties, including advocating for full implementation of the “no-excuse” absentee voting ballot referendum, inclusive reproductive justice legislation, reducing the collateral consequences of criminal records on housing, and much more.
We’ll need your help to get this work done this session – are you ready to join us?
In the Connecticut General Assembly 2025 Legislative Session, the ACLU of Connecticut will be working to advance legislation for a myriad of issues, including the following:
- Ensuring full implementation of absentee voting, including “no-excuse” absentee voting
- Advancing inclusive reproductive justice legislation
- Reducing the collateral consequences of criminal records on housing
- Supporting the passage of the Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act (DVSJA)
- Strengthening freedom of information statutes
- Enforcing the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act of Connecticut (CTVRA)
- Reimagining pretrial justice in Connecticut
- Investing in driving equity and ending unnecessary low-level traffic stops
Other priorities during the 2025 legislative session will include legislation regarding police practices, prison conditions, free speech protections, TRUST Act reinforcements, DEI appropriations and funding conditions, and much more.
Ensuring Full Implementation of Absentee Voting
The ACLU of Connecticut worked in coalition with voting rights advocacy organizations across the state, such as the League of Women Voters, the Connecticut Project Action Fund, the League of Conservation Voters Education Fund, and others, to pass the “no-excuse” absentee voting referendum during the 2024 election cycle.
During the 2025 legislative session, the ACLU of Connecticut will be in the Capitol to advance expansive implementation strategies for absentee voting measures. This work will include pressuring the Government Administration and Elections committee to include our policy guidance. Our coalition is monitoring legislative actions and planning a sign-on letter.
Advancing Inclusive Reproductive Justice Legislation
The ACLU of Connecticut is focused on ensuring full access to reproductive healthcare and defending bodily autonomy. This means combatting any and all attacks on reproductive rights for anyone trying to access reproductive care. This includes gender-affirming care.
We are committed to advancing reproductive justice legislation that is both expansive and inclusive for all during the 2025 legislative session.
Reducing the Collateral Consequences of Criminal Records on Housing
In the last legislative session, the ACLU of Connecticut worked with Smart Justice Leaders and community partners to advocate for legislation that would provide people with a fair chance at housing without a criminal record looming over them and their housing opportunities.
The 2025 legislative session is our chance to build on the momentum our communities created last year – and we are taking it. We will join our Smart Justice Leaders, partner organizations, and community advocates in the Capitol to make it clear to legislators that people should be evaluated as individual people when they are applying for housing without the fear of being discriminated against for having a record of arrest or conviction.
Supporting the Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act (DVJSA)
Domestic and family violence is a real and serious problem in Connecticut, and it requires real, meaningful solutions that intentionally increase public safety and bolster community health. The ACLU of Connecticut is dedicated to advancing and investing in violence-interrupting programs and services in the state.
We are looking forward to working with coalition partners such as the Center for Family Justice to craft and raise awareness about a DVSJA bill being created in Connecticut, providing real pathways for trauma-informed sentencing and commutation relief for domestic violence survivors entangled in the criminal legal system as a direct result of the violence they’ve experienced.
Strengthening Freedom of Information Statutes
The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) is a key tool for ensuring that the government is open for, and thus accountable to, the public. The ACLU of Connecticut has provided thought leadership on building proactive, equitable regulatory policies, guardrails, and frameworks for freedom of information in the state.
We are, and will continue to be, dedicated to making and keeping governmental records open and available to all people in the widest possible range of circumstances, ensuring government transparency and accountability.
Enforcing the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act of Connecticut CTVRA
The ACLU of Connecticut has continually been a staunch advocate for extending voting rights to the greatest number of people, with the only permissible restrictions being those essential to making elections secure, fair, and equitably accessible. Together with many civil rights, voting rights, labor, service, community, and faith-based organizations, we were instrumental in the passage of the CTVRA in 2023.
Now, in 2025, the ACLU of Connecticut and other voting rights organizations are positioned to ensure full enactment, enforcement, and protection of the CTVRA as we continue to remove barriers to and expand voting access.
Reimaging Pretrial Justice
In 2024, the legislature proposed a constitutional amendment to examine the cash bail industry, indicating a willingness to reimagine what pretrial justice looks like in the state. This was a step in the right direction, but the ACLU of Connecticut is working with a coalition as a leader to find alternatives to cash bail in order to pave the way for a more fair and just pretrial system.
Investing in Driving Equity
During the 2024 legislative session, the ACLU of Connecticut worked closely with Smart Justice Leaders and partner organizations like the Center for Policing Equity to advance legislation that invested in public safety and equity on Connecticut roads. By the end of the session, it was clear to community advocates and key legislators that there was a need to reduce the number of unnecessary and potentially dangerous stops regarding low-level, non-safety related traffic violations, which often created pathways to discriminatory policing.
We will build on these foundations to emphasize the importance of investing in public safety and promoting driving equity in the state in order to make this necessary change for all Connecticut drivers.