Separation of Church and State

This bill a glaring civil rights violation. A person with disabilities should not be subject to any non-consensual identification regardless of their “competency,” and allowing law enforcement officers to make potential prejudgments of the people they are interacting with will promote a hostile atmosphere that will inevitably lead to more unnecessary violence. Regardless, this database would be ineffectual as it is based on the expectation that it will be used prior to interacting with individuals. This is unrealistic in any law enforcement scenario.

Law enforcement should be trained on identifying and interacting with people with disabilities on a need-to-know basis. The burden of appropriate communication and procedure should never be placed on ANY civilian, let alone civilians within a population that often have less legal autonomy than their non-disabled counterparts. Again, this violates a disabled person’s constitutional right to privacy, as well as the HIPAA protections they are afforded. Even with the “optional” language used in this bill, there truly is no option for the person actually being loaded onto this database. This bill is out of touch, lazy, and completely negligent to the issue at hand. I am begging the West Virginia Legislature, for once, to center people with disabilities in your decision making rather than using them as collateral.

• Church and state needs to remain separated.

 Yes, this bill says that the faith based organization(s) are to remain indifferent, but that would be very hard to prove that they are not trying to influence the children in any way, and vice versa*.

(c) If the legal parent or guardian of a child objects to the placement of a child at a faith-based organization, on the grounds of religious expression, then the department shall find an alternative placement for the child

• The above needs to be an OPT IN** option not an OPT OUT***. If the parent or legal guardian wants the child to be placed in a faith based organization then let it be. My reasoning for that is if a child is to go to a place of a different faith of them, it will cause great mental turmoil. They are often not allowed to practice their religion, or non religion within faith based organizations. They are often ostracized**** within said group because of this. This in turn is very bad for the child's mental health, and could lead to disastrous outcomes for the child, and/or lasting long term mental health issues.

*vice versa- with the order changed; with the relations reversed; the other way around

**opt in- to choose to participate

***opt out- to choose to not participate

****exclude; exile; refuse to include; to exclude from a group by common consent

While I acknowledge the tragedy of any loss of life, I believe this resolution sets a dangerous precedent by honoring an individual who promoted deeply divisive and harmful ideologies. Charlie Kirk, through his organization Turning Point USA and his public platforms, consistently espoused views that many Americans, including myself, find abhorrent. These include promoting racism, homophobia, transphobia, Islamophobia, sexism, and Christian Nationalism to name a few. 

The tragic circumstances of Kirk's death should not overshadow the harmful legacy of his work. While we can condemn violence in all forms, we must also be critical of the ideologies that promote division and discrimination in our society. We should be honoring those who bring Americans together, not those who have sowed division and hatred.

To not allow mail-in ballots is voter suppression. There are many reasons one might not make it to the polls, and they have a right for their voice to be heard.

• Ethics complaints are not dismissed based on the complainant’s district,
• Civil-rights concerns receive full review regardless of geographic boundaries, and
• Citizens are not silenced or excluded from oversight processes due to where they live.

• Packing or cracking of minority and dissenting voters
• Maps that preserve political power while appearing statistically compliant
• Disproportionate harm to communities with limited political or financial means

• Bills mandating or privileging Christian religious texts in public schools
• Bills requiring Christian religious displays in classrooms
• Official recognition and observance proposals centered on Christian doctrine

• It conditions compensation on surplus revenue while many state workers continue to struggle with rising housing, food, healthcare, and utility costs.
• It excludes non-state workers — including taxpayers funding state operations — from relief during the same surplus conditions.
• It provides no mechanism to ensure the bonus addresses workforce retention, wage compression, or cost-of-living disparities.

• ~30,090 West Virginians if using 1.7%, or
• ~319 West Virginians if using 0.018%.  

• endocrine care (hormone management for congenital conditions),
• appropriate screening (e.g., anatomy-based cancer screening),
• specialist referrals and coding.

• U.S. Constitution — 14th Amendment (Due Process & Equal Protection): when a law burdens a class of people (including those with congenital sex traits) and interferes with personal medical decision-making, it triggers major equal protection and liberty concerns.
• West Virginia Constitution — Article III (Due Process / inherent rights): West Virginia’s Bill of Rights includes protections for liberty and due process that courts treat as containing equal-protection principles.  

1. Replace the full exemption with a refundable, income-tested child/family credit that applies regardless of marital status (with a clear phaseout by income).
2. If the Legislature wants to help larger households, base it on number of dependents + income/poverty level, not on whether the taxpayer files as “married.”
3. Require a public fiscal note showing who benefits by income bracket and county, and what services may be reduced to offset lost revenue.