The 2025 Session ended this weekend. ACLU-WV tracked hundreds of bills this session, advocating directly with lawmakers, issuing calls to action to our supporters, submitting written testimony, attending lobby days and town halls, and raising media awareness on critical civil liberties issues.
Thankfully, several harmful bills failed to pass, including:
- A so-called “camping” ban criminalizing sleeping outside when a person has nowhere else to go.
- A rewrite of the state’s Freedom of Information Act that would have undermined the public’s ability to access government records.
- A bill that would have overturned the state’s 20 municipal ordinances barring discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and/or gender identity.
- An anti-immigrant bill disguised as a human trafficking bill that would have criminalized churches for providing rides to undocumented people.
- The resurrection of the death penalty.
- A bill kicking more than 165,000 people off of Medicaid if the federal government changes its funding formula by even one penny.
Shamefully, several harmful and/or unconstitutional bills did pass, including:
- An anti-diversity bill that silences discussions about racism in schools and universities and tries to re-segregate many aspects of our society in everything but name. The bill also gives legal cover to teachers who bully trans kids by deadnaming and misgendering them. The Senate likely broke its own rules when trying to rush this bill through at the last minute. If Gov. Morrisey signs the bill (which we fully expect he will) then we will see the state in court.
- “Lauren’s Law” which will add some 21 new penalties for drug possession, worsen jail overcrowding, triple minimum sentences for drugs that do NOT include fentanyl, and more. The drug war has failed to make our communities safer. All it has done is drain resources and tear communities apart, with communities of color being the hardest hit.
- A bill forcing teachers to “out” trans students to their parents if they ask the teacher to start using different pronouns or a different name for them. Lawmakers were particularly pre-occupied with trying to force LGBTQ+ West Virginians back into the closet this session. This discriminatory bill is also likely to see a court challenge.
- Several anti-voting bills restricting the types of voter ID that will be accepted, making it easier for officials to remove people from voter rolls, banning ranked choice voting (which already isn’t used in state-run elections in West Virginia) and barring non-citizens from voting (which is already prohibited by state law).
- A bill removing the exemptions to the state’s gender-affirming medical care ban. When lawmakers barred gender-affirming care for trans youth a couple of years ago, they at least had the decency to allow kids experiencing severe gender dysphoria or suicidal ideation to still receive the care. This lifesaving care will now be completely banned in West Virginia. The ACLU is currently litigating this issue at the Supreme Court in United States v. Skrmetti.
Politicians spent a lot of time attacking already marginalized groups of people this session, while doing little-to-nothing to address real problems like flood relief, lack of clean drinking water, the addiction crisis, the foster care crisis, or jobs.
We urge voters to take note of the priorities at the Capitol and demand a more serious approach to governance that respects the rights of We the People.