Rep. Eric Morrison

This Act would add designation that the holder is a veteran to the Delaware Driver License or Identification Card upon request. Adding designation that the holder is a veteran to a Driver License or Identification Card would eliminate the need for a veteran to carry a separate card or official discharge forms in order to prove their service.

This Act modernizes the hate crime statute and consolidates related offenses together with the hate crime statute in the Criminal Code. Changes to the hate crime statute include: (1) That the hate crime be motivated, in whole or in part, on a bias. This reflects instances where a hate crime is committed but is only motivated in part by hate in addition to another component. (2) That the focus be on the defendant’s belief or perception. Currently our law focuses on the victim’s actual race, gender, religion, or other immutable characteristic, rather than focusing on the state of mind of the defendant. This change refocuses the inquiry on the defendant’s state of mind, and specifically, what the defendant believes to be true at the time the act was committed. (3) Prohibiting any crime committed in whole or in part on a belief or perception of an immutable characteristic of a group. This Act adds “group” to make clear that a hate crime can be committed because of the hate towards a group at large. In addition, this Act does the following: (1) Combines and updates the existing desecration and desecration of a burial place sections maintaining the existing penalties. (2) Establishes a right of civil remedies to allow individuals to seek relief from hate crime, desecration, and religious symbol burning related injury. (3) Requires law enforcement to report violations and investigations of violations of hate crimes to the Division of Civil Rights and Public Trust. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.

This bill permits health-care providers who are licensed in a state other than Delaware to deliver health-care services by telehealth and telemedicine only if a health-care provider-patient relationship has been established in accordance with § 6003 of Title 24.

This Act provides that the Department of Correction must provide a copy of all policies relating to the accrual and forfeiture of good time to inmates, as well as a quarterly written accounting of good time credit earned and/or forfeited. The requirement that all accrued time must be forfeited upon conviction of any crime within custody, the complete forfeiture will apply only to commission of felonies. Forfeiture of good times for rule violations is changed to apply only to Class I disciplinary violations. The Act also updates § 4322 of Title 11 to allow dissemination of Department of Correction policies and procedures to inmates and the public where such dissemination would not endanger safety or security of a correctional facility, corrections staff, inmates, or the public.

Acquiring a driver’s license is an important part of young adults in foster care achieving normalcy and eventual independence. Yet, youth in long term foster care face numerous unique barriers in this endeavor. Not only are there logistical challenges in the process of obtaining a license for teenagers not in parental care, but the automobile insurance industry’s rules can be unaccommodating and financially prohibitive. And, research shows that youth who leave foster care with a driver’s license are more likely to have a successful outcome, avoiding homelessness and incarceration, as reliable transportation is a crucial step to employment. Like Senate Bill No. 151, this Substitute Act seeks to aid youth in foster care by doing the following: (1) Establishing a pilot program within the Office of the Child Advocate (“Office”) that would pay the cost of driver education, licensure and other costs incidental to licensure, and motor vehicle insurance. (2) Prohibiting automobile insurers from using certain factors in determining a foster child’s automobile insurance rates. (3) Prohibiting the DMV from charging certain fees related to licensure for a foster child participating in the Office’s pilot program. (4) Exempting certain individuals from liability for negligence of a foster child. This Substitute differs from Senate Bill No. 151 as follows: (1) By directing that the Act is to be implemented the earlier of April 1, 2023, or the date of publication in the Register of Regulations of a notice by the Child Advocate that the Act is to be implemented. (2) By setting the date reports from the Office of the Child Advocate are due based on the implementation date of the Act. (3) By directing the Act to expire, or sunset, 2 years from the implementation date of the Act.

Citing the increasing number of false confessions recorded by the National Registry of Exonerations and recent science around adolescent brain development, several states across the nation have passed legislation to ban the use of deceptive interrogation techniques on juveniles. Deceptive tactics is limited to the knowing use of misleading statements about evidence or communications of false promises of leniency to extract a confession or other incriminating evidence from a youth suspected of breaking the law. To date, Delaware has yet to have a wrongful conviction case involving a false confession but according to groups such as the Innocence Project, wrongful convictions can often take decades to be revealed. Three other states, Illinois, Utah and Oregon, have passed similar legislation. Additional states, including Colorado and California, are currently considering similar legislation. This Act mirrors efforts in other states by prohibiting the knowing use of false statements about evidence, or false or misleading promises of leniency during custodial interrogations of persons under the age of 18. Any statement elicited from a person in violation of this section is inadmissible in any subsequent juvenile delinquency or criminal court proceeding.

This Act clarifies the scope and protections for individuals with disabilities under the Delaware Equal Accommodations Law (DEAL) and further aligns definitions and scope of DEAL with federal law protecting individuals with disabilities from discrimination by places of public accommodation, including the Americans with Disabilities Act. This Act is consistent with the Superior Court's decision in Ray v. State Human Rels. Comm'n, 2021 Del. Super. LEXIS 668, which held that "[a]ny interpretation to suggest the legislature made a choice to narrow DEAL's protection ignores both the express mandates and comprehensive guidance under DEAL. It takes away the right of a protected class member to be heard. As interpreted, Delaware law would need to reject what has been universally accepted." This alignment with federal law includes all of the following: 1. Using the same terms and definitions for those terms. 2. Clarifying that places of public accommodation must make reasonable modifications in policies, practices, and procedures, sometimes referred to as “reasonable accommodations”, unless doing so would fundamentally alter the program, business, or service. 3. Clarifying that a public accommodation must provide auxiliary aids and services, unless doing so would fundamentally alter the program, business, or service or be an undue burden. 4. Clarifying that places of public accommodation must remove physical barriers if doing so is readily achievable. 5. Clarifying that state investigations of complaints must apply the requirements under state law in a manner consistent with equivalent requirements under federal laws. This Act also does all of the following 1. Clarifies that an individual does not have to use the exact terms in DEAL to request a reasonable modification or auxiliary aids and services for the request to be covered by DEAL. 2. Extends the time to file a complaint under DEAL to 1 year. 3. Allows the Commission to waive the cost of transcript, upon application by a party. 4. Makes corresponding changes to the requirement under § 10006A of Title 29 that a public body allow a member with a disability to use electronic means of communication to attend a meeting because "reasonable modification" is the term now used under § 4504 of Title 6. The term "reasonable accommodation" is retained because that is the term used under state and federal law in employment contexts, which might apply to a member of public body. 5. Makes technical corrections to clarify existing law and conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.

Like Senate Bill No. 35, this Act defines specific violations of wage payment and collection laws under Chapter 11 of Title 19 as wage theft, providing specific penalties for these violations, and creates a new criminal offense of wage theft, with a mechanism for the Department of Labor to refer completed investigations to the Department of Justice for prosecution. Clearly defining wage theft protects Delaware workers and Delaware taxpayers from employers who pay their employees “under the table” because this practice results in lost tax revenue to this State and exposes employees to personal risk in the areas of unemployment compensation and workplace injuries. The civil penalties collected for violations that are wage theft must be used for the enforcement of wage payment and collection laws under Chapter 11 of Title 19 and prosecution of the offense of wage theft under § 841D of Title 11. Senate Substitute No. 1 for Senate Bill No. 35 differs from Senate Bill No. 35 as follows: • Clarifies that Chapter 11 of Title 19 does not apply to independent contractors. • Defines the term "independent contractor" using the same definition that is used in Chapter 35 of Title 19 and specifically identifying as "independent contractors" a person licensed by the Department of Insurance or registered under Chapter 73 of Title 6 as a broker-dealer, agent, investment adviser, or investment adviser representative. It also allows the Department of Labor to designate additional occupations as an “independent contractor” through regulations. • Does not make any changes to the definitions sections of other chapters in Title 19. • Adds terms and definitions to § 1101 of Title 19 that are used in Chapter 11, with the same definitions for the terms as would have applied under the revisions to § 101 of Title 19 in SB 35. Like Senate Bill No. 35, this Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual and requires a greater than majority vote for passage because § 28 of Article IV of the Delaware Constitution requires the affirmative vote of two-thirds of the members elected to each house of the General Assembly to give criminal jurisdiction to inferior courts.

Senate Bill No. 208 clarifies that an employer is liable to an employee for liquidated damages if the employer does not make wages available on the next payday after an employee quits, resigns, is discharged, suspended, or laid off. Senate Substitute No. 1 for Senate Bill No. 208 revises these clarifications so it is clear which sections of existing law, §§ 1104 and 1107 of Title 19, provide the basis for an employer to have reasonable grounds to dispute that an employee is owed wages, and like SB 208, does not make any changes to existing law regarding when an employer may withhold or divert any portion of an employee’s wages: 1. Section 1104 of Title 19 requires that in a dispute over the amount of wages, the employer must pay all wages conceded by the employer to be due and the employee may pursue a claim for any balance claimed. 2. Section 1107 of Title 19 prohibits an employer from withholding or diverting any portion of an employee’s wages unless required or empowered to do so by state or federal law. Since 1979, Regulation 1328 of Title 19 of the Delaware Administrative Code has provided that an employer may, under written agreement, withhold wages for a cash advance or the value of goods and services, but withholding wages for damaged or unreturned property is a violation of § 1107 of Title 19. Specifically, Senate Substitute No. 1 for SB 208 differs from SB 208 by doing the following: 1. In subsection (a), includes the changes from Senate Amendment No. 1 to SB 208, which clarify the manner that final wages earned by a former employee must be provided and a date by which that payment must be made. The date by which an employer must pay final wages changes current law by extending the time, allowing an employer to make this payment the later of the next regular pay cycle or 3 days after the last day the employee worked. 2. In subsection (b), clarifies that §§ 1104 and 1107 of Title 19 provide the reasonable grounds that may be a basis for an employer to dispute that an employee is owed wages. 3. In subsection (c), revises the correction of the grammar in existing law so that it is clear that an employer is not in violation of Chapter 11 of Title 19 if the employer is unable to prepare payroll due to a labor dispute, power failure, weather catastrophe, epidemic, fire, or explosion. Like SB 208, this Substitute Bill also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual and revises the section heading to accurately describe the content of the section.

This Act requires medical marijuana compassion centers and safety compliance facilities that have 20 or more employees to have a labor peace agreement with 1 more bona fide labor organizations. This Act defines "labor peace agreement" as an agreement between an employer and a labor organization that, at a minimum, includes all of the following: 1. Prohibits the labor organization and members from engaging in picketing, work stoppages, boycotts, or any other economic interference with the business of the employer. 2. Prohibits the employer from disrupting efforts by the bona fide labor organization to communicate with and attempt to organize and represent employees. 3. Provides the labor organization access at reasonable times to areas in which the employees work, for the purpose of meeting with employees to discuss their right to representation, employment rights under state law, and terms and conditions of employment.