2026 Legislative Priorities

As the Vermont legislature begins their 2026 session, the ACLU of Vermont is already hard at work advancing and defending the civil liberties of everyone that calls our state home. Below are some of the priority issues that we hope the legislature will address in the coming session, especially as we continue working to build a Firewall for Freedom to protect Vermonters from federal abuses of power.

• Provide Access to Counsel for Civil Detainees: Ensure that people held in state prisons for alleged civil immigration violations have access to an attorney, just as we do for someone held for alleged criminal violations.

• Safeguard Immigrants’ Access to Essential Services: Prevent federal agents from making warrantless immigration arrests in private spaces in schools and healthcare facilities, and expand Vermont’s ban on civil arrests at court houses to include other state and local government buildings.

• Improve Detention Conditions: Ensure access to language services, allow access to free communications, and restrict exploitive prices at commissary.

• Require Proper Identification of Law Enforcement Officers: Prohibit law enforcement officers from concealing their identity through masking and require that they be properly identified so that individuals have recourse for civil rights violations.

• Ensure Access to Justice for Violations of Constitutional Rights by Federal Officials: Codify a private right action that allows people to sue federal officials when they violate their rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.

• Protect Gender-Affirming Care: Ensure patients and providers have the resources they need to continue to access gender-affirming care in the face of changing federal regulations and prohibitions. This includes potential funding for care or start-up costs for the establishment of new clinics.

• Fund Emergency Housing: Vermont has the fourth highest rate of homelessness in the country, and we need to do more for those being left behind. Currently, the need for access to General Assistance Emergency Housing services far outstrips the program’s capacity. At the same time, eligible people cannot access the available resources and budgeted funds are going unspent because of needless administrative hurdles. At the very least, we need to maintain current funding levels for this program and remove the barriers which have led to underutilization of the program.

• Pass a Fair Share for Vermont Wealth Tax: The current economic system works for those at the very top, but too many people in our communities are struggling. We will continue urging lawmakers to increase taxes on the wealthiest Vermont residents to raise state revenue and ensure support for essential state government services in the face of unprecedented cuts to federal funds and massive tax breaks for those who need them least. When those who can most afford it pay their fair share, we can build a Vermont that works for everyone.

• Enact Smarter Stops for Safer Roads: Address over policing and racial disparities in traffic stops by prohibiting stops for equipment violations and consent-based searches without probable cause.

• Prevent Cruel and Unusual Punishment of People Experiencing Homelessness: Close the loophole created by Grants Pass v. Johnson and affirm that the government cannot punish people experiencing homelessness for engaging in life sustaining behavior on public property.

• Pass Second Look Legislation: Allow people who have served a significant portion of their sentence to petition for early release if they are no longer deemed a threat to society.

• Reject Attempts to Criminalize Poverty, Substance Use Disorder, and Homelessness: Relying on harsher criminal penalties, incarceration, or systems of forced treatment to address concerns of community safety is both cruel and ineffective. We will strongly oppose any efforts to use these harmful and counterproductive approaches and will continue to call for greater investments in community supports that more effectively promote community safety for everyone.

• Protect Vermonters’ Sensitive Information: Minimize the information that private entities and the government can collect about people as well as what data can be sold or shared to better protect Vermonters’ privacy and constitutional rights.