Latest news with #HouseBill1178
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Gov. Stitt vetoes bill targeting 'fake' service animals. Is there another solution?
Oklahoma may have narrowly avoided creating a new criminal charge targeting people who misrepresent their pet as a service animal. The proposed law, which has been vetoed by Gov. Kevin Stitt, targeted people who claim their animal is a service dog when it doesn't meet federal guidelines for trained service dogs. House Bill 1178 would have made such an act a misdemeanor. Although it was vetoed by the governor, the state House and Senate could now override the decision and place it into law. That would be a challenging request, however, because an earlier House vote did not reach the number of votes to be considered veto-proof. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, service animals are defined as dogs that are trained to do work or perform tasks for people with disabilities. Examples include guiding people who are blind, alerting people who are deaf, pulling a wheelchair, alerting and protecting a person who is having a seizure, reminding a person with mental illness to take prescribed medications, or calming a person with post-traumatic stress disorder. In his veto message released Wednesday, May 14, Stitt suggested lawmakers find another solution. "While we all might agree that an animal mislabeled as a service animal is frustrating, criminalizing the practice is an overreaction," Stitt wrote. "There are other ways to address this issue without adding more criminal statutes to our code." The bill's author, state Rep. Marilyn Stark, R-Bethany, said she had been working on the legislation since 2019 and introduced it after constituents who own service animals complained about untrained dogs approaching theirs. "For me, this just says don't lie about what your animal is. Be honest. If the business wants to let you in, they can," Stark said during discussion earlier this year in the Oklahoma House of Representatives. "There are people not getting service animals because it's such a problem; they don't want to have to interact with the untrained 'service' animals that are out there." If the bill became law, Oklahoma would have become one of 35 states that have laws against the use of fraudulent service dogs, according to the Michigan State University Animal Legal and Historical Center. Businesses that serve the public can ban most animals from their premises but cannot turn away legitimate service animals that are properly controlled by their handler. Problems can arise, however, because privacy laws only let businesses ask two questions to determine their legitimacy: Is the dog a service animal required because of a disability? What work or task has the dog been trained to perform? Staff cannot ask about the person's disability, require medical documentation, require a special identification card or training documentation for the dog, or ask that the dog demonstrate its ability to perform the task. Both Stark and the bill's Senate author, David Bullard, R-Durant, have said that posting a sign on business doors warning about the misdemeanor could be an effective deterrent against people trying to misrepresent their animal's function. If a business owner believed someone was violating the law, they could call the police, Bullard said. "If a person misrepresents (their use of an animal), they would be asked to leave. If not, (the business) could call the police in to do that," he said. Under Oklahoma law, someone convicted of a misdemeanor faces up to a year in county jail or a fine of no more than $500, or both. The bill made it through the Legislature along mostly party-line votes, with some Republicans crossing over to vote against it. Although opponents recognized the issues that both business owners and service animal handlers have faced, they called for better education rather than simply hanging the threat of criminal misdemeanor over someone's head. During debate in the House, Oklahoma City Democrat Forrest Bennett criticized the bill as helping one class of people at the disadvantage of another. "I would love, in certain situations, to ask why a friend needs an AR-15 to walk into a Subway to order a sandwich. But I don't get to come up here and have my friends help me pass a law to make that easier for me to do. I just have to deal with that in public," he said, warning that the bill could also spur unintended lawsuits. "Right now, a business owner with a backbone can say, 'You and your service animal are causing a problem. We have a reason to ask you to leave.' That's a reality in Oklahoma right now." Lawmakers must finish their annual work, including any veto overrides, by May 30. This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma bill criminalizing false service animal claims is vetoed
Yahoo
18-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Bill proposes criminal charges for violating service animal rules
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) — There's a new effort to criminalize people who mispresent their dogs or other animals as service animals. House Bill 1178 authored by Representative Marilyn Stark, R-Bethany, would make it a misdemeanor to falsely misrepresent your animal as a service animal. The bill passed through the House on Tuesday. State Representative JJ Humphrey, R-Lane, was one of the many that voted 'yes' for the bill. 'You have to be able to hold people accountable,' said Humphrey. 'If we don't hold people accountable then we see restaurants, we see businesses saying 'no dogs, period, allowed ' that creates a big, big problem.' Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, service animals are not required to wear an identifying vest, badge, or carry a license. House Committee grills ODMHSAS Commissioner on missing $43 million 'We should be able to license that you have a card with you just bam, it is a service animal or it's not a service animal. And you can't claim it is a service animal unless you have,' said Humphrey. Service animal experts worry the bill won't work. 'Now you're inviting the government to investigate your medical history, your background, things like that, and that's not a place for the government to be,' said Kate Friedl, President of Anthem Service Dogs. Friedl said a person's disability is not always physically visible. '17% or one in six Oklahomans are living with a disability. You can walk through Walmart and pass by 100 people and not even know or think about whether or not a person you're standing next to has a disability,' said Friedl. Lawmakers said the goal isn't to issue more citations, but to hold people accountable. 'We need to set up mechanisms in our criminal justice system that actually do help misdemeanor crimes like this. Again, I think a fine would be appropriate and then if you continue to do it, you can increase the fine or actually result in 30 days county jail,' said Humphrey. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
31-01-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Could lawmakers legalize marijuana this year? These are the bills to watch.
The push for marijuana legalization in Indiana has new money and new faces behind it. It's more bipartisan than ever before. And there's a new governor who's more amenable to certain aspects of the debate than the previous one. Every year there have been many, sometimes dozens, of bills attempting to move the needle, but they always fail to make it into law. Indiana is now surrounded on all sides by states where some level of cannabis is legal. Could this finally be the year for one of these bills to go the distance? Indiana General Assembly: With a new governor and Republican-backed marijuana lobbying effort, will anything change? Leaders behind a new lobbying group, Safe and Regulated Indiana, are projecting optimism. Some lawmakers behind the bills are far more tempered in their expectations: This could take multiple election cycles, but it does seem like there's some momentum. Still, so far this year none of the bills legalizing marijuana have received a hearing, the first step toward becoming law. Here are the marijuana-related bills lawmakers have proposed this session: Four bills would allow people with a medical condition and their doctor's permission to use medical marijuana, and establish a regulatory framework to oversee a medical marijuana program: , by Rep. Jake Teshka, R-North Liberty Senate Bill 341, by Sen. Michael Young, R-Indianapolis , by Sen. Greg Taylor, D-Indianapolis House Bill 1178, by Rep. Jim Lucas, R-Seymour. This bill also includes a host of other regulations about the packaging and labeling of medical marijuana. Four bills would legalize the production and sale of marijuana for adults, establish a tax and create a new state agency to oversee the regulations: House Bill 1630, by Rep. Heath VanNatter, R-Kokomo Senate Bill 113, by Sen. Rodney Pol, D-Chesterton, and Sen. Kyle Walker, R-Fishers , by Rep. Blake Johnson, D-Indianapolis House Bill 1654, by Rep. Zach Payne, R-Charlestown. This bill would set the legal age at 18, whereas the others set it at 21. , by Rep. Heath VanNatter, R-Kokomo, would decriminalize the possession of two ounces or less of marijuana. This isn't the same as legalization, which would involve regulating a market. Senate Bill 166, by Sens. Spencer Deery, R-West Lafayette, and Tyler Johnson, R-Leo; as well as , by Rep. Timothy Wesco, R-Osceola, would prohibit the advertising of the product or a related business by any medium ― billboard, digital, etc. House Bill 1026, by Rep. Joanna King, R-Middlebury, narrowly focuses a prohibition on physical signs located within 1,000 feet of places where kids are, such as schools and public parks. House Bill 1119, by Rep. Wendy McNamara, R-Evansville would set the legal limit for the amount of THC that can be found in a person's saliva to be penalized with an OWI charge. Current law says you can get charged if you have any measurable amount in your blood; this bill would set the threshold at five nanograms per milliliter in your saliva, the common limit in states where marijuana is legal. Contact IndyStar state government and politics reporter Kayla Dwyer at kdwyer@ or follow her on Twitter @kayla_dwyer17. This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Marijuana bills filed in the Indiana legislature in 2025
