Girls seeking abortions in New Hampshire must first tell their parents or a judge, employers in Alabama must verify new workers’ U.S. residency, and California students will be the first in the country to receive mandatory lessons about the contributions of gays and lesbians under state laws set to take effect at the start of 2012.
Many laws reflect concerns over immigration, the cost of government, texting while driving and protecting young people, including regulations on sports concussions.
Immigration
With the country’s toughest immigration law, Alabama is enacting a key provision requiring all employers who do business with any government entity to use a federal system known as E-Verify to check that all new employees are in the country legally.
Georgia is putting a similar law into effect.
Tennessee will require businesses to ensure employees are legally authorized to work in the U.S. but exempts employers with five or fewer workers and allows them to keep a copy of the new hire’s driver’s license instead of using E-Verify.
A South Carolina law would allow officials to yank the operating licenses of businesses that don’t check new hires’ legal status through E-Verify, while a California law allows students who entered the country illegally to receive private financial aid at public colleges.
Protecting youths
Many laws aim to protect young people.
People 18 and younger in Illinois will have to wear seat belts while riding in taxis for school-related purposes, and Illinois school boards can now suspend or expel students who make explicit threats on websites against other students or school employees.
Florida will take control of lunch and other school food programs from the federal government, allowing the state to put more Florida- grown fresh fruit and vegetables on school menus. A California law will add gays, lesbians and people with disabilities to the list of social and ethnic groups whose contributions must be taught in history lessons in public schools. The law also bans teaching materials that reflect poorly on gays or particular religions.
Opponents have filed five potential initiatives to repeal the requirement outright or let parents remove their children while gays’ contributions are being taught.
Abortion
In New Hampshire, a law requiring girls seeking abortions to tell their parents or a judge first was reinstated by conservative Republicans over a gubernatorial veto. The state enacted a similar law eight years ago, but it was never enforced following a series of lawsuits.
In Arkansas, facilities that perform 10 or more nonsurgical abortions a month must be licensed by the state Health Department and be subject to inspections by the department, the same requirements faced by facilities that offer surgical abortions in the state. It affects two Planned Parenthood facilities that offer the abortion pill, though they’re not singled out in the statute.
Financial reforms
Among federal laws, a measure Congress passed last week to extend Social Security tax cuts and federal unemployment-benefit programs raises insurance fees on new mortgages and refinancings backed by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Administration by 0.1 percentage points beginning Sunday.
That covers about 90 percent of them and effectively makes a borrower’s monthly payment on a new $200,000 mortgage or refinancing about $17 a month more than it would have been if obtained before the first of the year.
Driving and texting
Nevada’s 3-month-old ban on texting while driving gets tougher, with tickets replacing the warnings that police have issued since the ban took effect Oct. 1. In Pennsylvania, police are preparing to enforce a recently enacted ban on texting by drivers, scheduled to take effect by spring.
Election law
Rhode Island and Tennessee will require voters to present a photo ID, a measure that supporters say prevents fraud but that opponents say will make it harder for minorities and the elderly to cast ballots.
Jan. 1 is the effective date in many states for laws passed in this year’s legislative sessions.
