Seven bills enacted into law would help protect Massachusetts residents from the barrage of federal threats to individual liberties.
**Please contact your state representative and state senator THIS WEEK via email or phone using the suggested script below and ask them to urgently support the passage of the following bills.** Find your legislators HERE.
Suggested script:
“Dear Rep./Sen. ________,
With a federal administration stripping away existing constitutional rights and protections, Massachusetts must take a stand. As a member of the League of Women Voters, I encourage you to sign on as a co-sponsor and support passage of the following bills to protect and ensure reproductive freedom, immigrants’ rights, and freedom of expression:
H.86/S.197, An Act to protect location privacy/An Act to protect safety and privacy by stopping the sale of location data (Location Shield Act)
H.2370/S.1563, An Act prioritizing patient access to care (update state law to ensure no one must leave the state for abortion care)
SD.2808, An Act strengthening health care protections in the Commonwealth (Strengthen protections for providers that offer abortion care and gender-affirming care)
H.2580/S.1681, An Act to protect the civil rights and safety of all Massachusetts residents (Safe Communities Act)
H.1588/S.1122, An Act relative to immigration detention and collaboration agreements (Dignity not Deportations)
H.1954/S.1127, An Act ensuring access to equitable representation in immigration proceedings (Immigrant Legal Defense Fund)
H.3594/S.2328, An Act regarding free expression (Prohibits book bans) Feel free to personalize your emails by adding why securing human rights for all residents is important to you. Remember to include your name and complete street address.
Click HERE to review more information about these bills.

Voting Rights Groups Challenge Trump’s Recent Anti-Voter Executive Order

A coalition of voting rights organizations filed a lawsuit in the US District Court for the District of Columbia to challenge President Trump’s unlawful executive order on voting. The order attempts to seize the power to set voter registration rules from Congress and the states, and doing so in a way that would violate federal law and the Constitution if carried out by the Election Assistance Commission (EAC). Key provisions of Trump’s order could disenfranchise millions of eligible voters, particularly voters of color, women voters, naturalized citizens, voters with disabilities, voters with low incomes, and first-time voters.

Beginning February 3, most members will join and renew their annual dues through a centralized online form. For a summary of the new process, please read New membership System FAQs 2/25

ALL MEMBERS SHOULD ACTIVATE THEIR MEMBERSHIP PORTAL IN FEBRUARY. LWVUS will send you an email (membership@lwv.org) the week of February 3^rd. The email contains a unique link, just for you. Lou Bouley has already entered your membership profile. Review it, make changes if needed. This will create your unique link to the portal.

First open the Join/Renew/Portal button in top menu to see complete directions, including a video with step-by-step actions. Directions include joining and renewing annual membership dues. Click on red Join/Renew button on the right to go to the national portal.

Don’t want to use the LWVUS portal? You can pay dues or join oﬄine – print the membership form on the Northampton Area LWV website. Click on the Join/Renew/Portal button in top menu for directions for writing check and mailing address.

Write to your Representative and Senator about the critical need to revise Chapter 70 Funding. Northampton, Amherst, Holyoke school systems can’t balance their budgets for 2026, and are considering cutting teachers and programs because of insufficient Ch.70 Funds.

LWVMA Where We Stand, p 39 calls for adjustment of the state’s education funding formula (the foundation budget formula) to meet changing needs and to cover costs, including those associated with mandated programs (2017)

Excellent slide show Overview of Chapter 70 Funding for Education by the Mass Municipal Association.

The Northampton Area League is fully committed to ensure compliance – in principle and in practice – with LWVUS Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Policy.

1/21/2024 LWV DEI Policy: Discrimination or harassment of any kind will not be accepted within the League, including but not limited to race, socio-economic status, age, ability status, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, gender identity, or marital status. The League is committed to fostering, cultivating, and preserving a culture of diversity, equity, inclusion, access, and belonging for all people. The League is an organization that respects and values the richness of our community and our members. The collective sum of our individual differences and life experiences represents not only our culture, but our reputation and the organization’s mission and achievements as well.

LWVUS Joins letter Opposing Federal Control of DC Police with coalition of 126 organizations

“President Trump has once again declared a false emergency to access executive powers that were not meant to be used as political tools to amass power. It is a terrible precedent that could harm cities, communities, and people well beyond D.C. What he is able to achieve in D.C., he will try to do elsewhere. He has already threatened to do the same in other major cities around the country.

The simple fact is that President Trump is not seriously interested in reducing crime. He is interested in misleading about crime to justify abhorrent practices, including rapid expansion of criminalization, unprecedented abuses by federal law enforcement agents, and dangerous executive power grabs. Time and time again, he has shown that his real goal is to create a police state, as he has repeatedly weaponized law enforcement to quash dissent and to serve his own personal and political ends.”

Tell your members of Congress to protect the freedom to vote and support the passage of the JOHN LEWIS VOTING RIGHTS ADVANCEMENT ACT. Use this LWVUS form to send the letter. Click on Write your letters.

Every day, the freedom to vote is under attack. Since the 2013 Supreme Court decision in Shelby County v. Holder gutted the Voting Rights Act (VRA), at least 31 states have enacted 114 voting laws that make it harder to vote, with the burden falling hardest on Black voters and other voters of color. We need a fully restored VRA to defend our democracy and protect the freedom to vote.