Month: January 2024

Clear that Snow From Your Car! Laws from New Year’s Past and Present

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Last week’s ice storm prompted a reminder of Connecticut's law which requires drivers to clear snow and ice from the roofs of their vehicles.  Connecticut is one of a handful of Northeast states with a law regarding snow and ice removal from vehicles. 

Although this law has been on the books for over 10 years, news outlets and police departments note that it bears repeating. Public Act 13-102 states that failure to remove accumulated ice/snow from a vehicle may result in fines that range from $75 to $1,250.  This should be deterrent enough to allocate the necessary time deicing and removing snow from cars.  

Speaking of....there are a number of laws that became active January 1st, 2024. Law are passed throughout the year at the state capital, but only a handful of the bills signed went into effect immediately.  Many kicked in Oct. 1, and more still become active on the first day of 2024. This year, new state statutes affect a wide variety of issues including early voting, minimum wage, online dating and healthcare records. 

Here are just a few summaries, and if you are interested in what happened before these were passed, check out our research guide which provides step-by-step guide on how to locate legislative history in Connecticut (nifty result, legislative history for PA 13-102 – see how it came to be!).  

Connecticut State Capitol Building at night in snow
Connecticut State Capitol Building, Hartford, Connecticut

Minimum Wage 

Connecticut's minimum wage will  increase effective January 1 from $15.00 to $15.69.  Made possible through legislation passed in 2019, which implemented five incremental increases in the minimum wage followed by future adjustments that are tied to the percentage change in the federal employment cost index. 

Artificial Intelligence (PA-23-16) 

This act concerning AI, automated decision-making and personal data privacy requires creation of an Office of Artificial Intelligence, and establishment of an AI task force and bill of rights. The law also requires Connecticut to examine the technology’s role and impact on state agencies. 

Under the same measure, the state will also work to protect the data privacy of individuals, including the case of targeted advertising. 

EARLY VOTING (PA 23-5)

Public Act 23-5 creates a framework for early, in-person voting requiring a 14-day early voting period for general elections, a seven-day period for most primaries, and a four-day early voting period for special elections and presidential preference primaries. Check out this Issue Brief from the Office of Legislative Research which explains Connecticut's Early Voting Law.
 
 ONLINE PRIVACY, DATA AND SAFETY PROTECTIONS (PA 23-56)

Makes various changes to laws on data privacy and related issues, including provisions on consumer health data, minors’ social media accounts and online services, online dating operators, and a task force on internet crimes against children. 

RESOURCES FOR PERSONS WITH AN INTELLECTUAL OR DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITY (PA 23-137)

This act contains many supportive measures, including the creation of a plan to establish a Transitional Life Skills College program to support certain people with IDD who are transitioning out of high school or to independent living.
 
WORKERS' COMPENSATION FOR POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS INJURIES (PA 23-35)

Expands eligibility for workers’ compensation benefits for post-traumatic stress injuries to all employees covered by the workers’ compensation law. 

The Connecticut General Assembly site list all Acts effective January 1, 2024 with a nifty tool for filtering by date.  Check them out and don’t forget to remove ice from your vehicle! Drive safely! 

Martin Luther King Jr. Day – Connecticut’s Connection

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Martin Luther King Day is observed this Monday, January 15, 2024. The holiday commemorates the holiday serves as a time for reflection, community service, and the celebration of Dr. King’s contributions to the civil rights movement.

Although now a paid federal holiday, the path towards recognition took fifteen long years. On November 2, 1983, President Ronald Reagan signed H.R. 3706, a bill that established Martin Luther King, Jr. Day as a federal public holiday on the third Monday of January. On January 18, 1986, President Reagan signed Proclamation 5431 (100 Stat. 4396), marking the first observance of his birthday a national holiday. Each president since President Reagan has issued a proclamation recognizing MLK Day as a day to acknowledge and celebrate the visionary work of Dr. King.

Connecticut was one of the first states to recognize MLK day in 1973 on Sundays (P.A. 73-648). In 1977, it switched to January 15 (P.A. 76-267). In 1986, it changed MLK day to the first Monday on or after January 15 annually (P.A. 84-56). Individual municipalities could opt to recognize it or not.

Connecticut’s role in Martin Luther King Jr.’s formative years, where he spent summer working on a tobacco farm in Simsbury, Ct is little known, as this experience opened a teenage Martin Luther King Jr's eyes to a world beyond the Jim Crow South.  Years later, his autobiography noted his experiences in Connecticut which helped heighten his awareness of the cruel injustice of segregation.  Simsbury will celebrate MLK's legacy this on Monday, January 15, 2024.

UConn Law Library will be open on Martin Luther King Day.  As future attorneys, legislators, judges and community activists, you will have the responsibility to uphold the law, provide access to justice and ensure that the justice system is equitable.  Take time to contemplate Dr. King’s legacy and how your future practice will advance the principles he stood for.

 

Public Domain Day 2024

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“Public Domain Day” is celebrated on first day of the year. Although copyright laws vary by country, in the United States, works registered or first published in 1928 enter the public domain, as are sound recordings from 1923.

Much fanfare has accompanied the arrival of the first versions of Mickey and Minnie Mouse, the iconic cartoon character seen in the animated short films “Steamboat Willie” and silent film ‘Plane Crazy” as they enter the public domain in the U.S. January 1, 2024.  Duke University notes that Walt Disney Company still retains the copyrights to later versions.

Beloved childhood favorites such as the Millions of Cats (oldest picture book in print), House at Pooh Corner (introducing the Tigger character; the original Winnie-the-Pooh (1926) was opened up to free use in 2022.) and Peter Pan or the Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up have also entered the public domain.  The class of 2024 represents both famous and obscure works that both evoke our earliest childhood memories and explore gripping social issues that remain significant today.

Examples are Virginia Woolf’s Orlando: A Biography (a groundbreaking novel known for its exploration of gender fluidity and sexuality), Coming of Age in Samoa: A Psychological Study of Primitive Youth for Western Civilisation by Margaret Mead (an influential work in anthropology which challenged Western perceptions of sexuality and influenced the nature vs. nurture debate that raged in the beginning of the 20th century and still rages today ), and Radclyffe Hall’s The Well of Loneliness (a pioneering exploration of gender identity and lesbian love). Also noteworthy is W.E.B. Du Bois’s Dark Princess which explores themes of racism and international politics, and D.H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover which was banned for obscenity in the United States, Canada, Australia, India and Japan. Fun Fact, the movie on Netflix is based on this novel (talk about relevance…).

The University of Pennsylvania maintains a digital catalog of U.S. copyright entries to verify if material is available for public use.  Popular places to find digitized items in the public domain  include repositories like HathiTrust.  Groundbreaking social issues are explored in these works from 1928, after revisiting them, you may feel that little has changed since 1928.