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Hot Issues This Week: NCAA Athletic Endorsements, Anti-Hazing Policies, Texas Abortion Law and More

September 07, 2021 (1 min read)

Business

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signs AB 1480, which expands a state law barring employers from using criminal detentions that did not result in a conviction as a factor in employment to include those already employed as nonsworn members of a criminal justice agency. 

Education

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signs SB 26, which moved the effective date of the state’s groundbreaking name, image, or likeness (NIL) law – which allows college athletes to profit from endorsements – to September 1, 2021.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) signs SB 84, which requires all Garden State colleges, high schools, and middle schools to adopt anti-hazing policies.

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D) signs SB 654, which among several things gives Tar Heel State K-12 schools the authority to not calculate school performance grades based on last year’s standardized test results.

North Carolina lawmakers also give final approval to HB 324, which would ban teaching the tenets of so-called Critical Race Theory in Tar Heel State schools. It moves to Gov. Cooper (D) for consideration. 

Energy

The Illinois Senate approves SB 18, an omnibus bill that would put one million electric vehicles on Prairie State roads over the next nine years and transition it to 100 percent clean energy by 2050. It is now with the House Executive Committee. 

Social Policy

In a 5-4 decision the Supreme Court of the United States declines to issue a stay of a Texas law (SB 8) that bars abortions once medical professionals can detect cardiac activity, usually around six weeks and before most women know they’re pregnant. The law also allows anyone to sue any party that “aids or abets” an abortion – though not the woman herself - regardless of whether they even know the parties involved. The SCOTUS ruling does not stop legal challenges to the law, which are ongoing. 

 The California Senate endorses AB 1282, which would change a current law that allows only “closed colony” commercial blood banks for animals in the Golden Slate. The measure is now in the Assembly.

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D) signs SB 301, which allows a person to petition the court to remove a second or third nonviolent crime from their record within 24 months once 20 years have passed since their conviction or sentence completion.

--Compiled by RICH EHISEN

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