Maryland Gov. Wes Moore faces campaigns to veto juvenile justice, other bills passed this year

The Maryland General Assembly adjourned in a celebratory flurry of balloons and confetti earlier this month after passing hundreds of bills in 90 days. But not everyone is popping champagne for the legislation that made it to Gov. Wes Moore’s desk.

Some are calling on Maryland’s Democratic governor to issue vetoes on policies that would produce seismic changes in the state’s juvenile justice system, allow the attorney general to sue gun manufacturers, revise plans to create offshore wind projects, end the publishing of public notices in local newspapers and anything that would generally increase fees or taxes for state residents.

Moore, who has already signed 120 bills from the 2024 legislative session, will hold his second bill signing of the year Thursday. His office declined to comment regarding the requested vetoes.

Bills become law once they are signed by the governor.

Legislation can also be enacted without his signature if the governor does not take action to either sign or veto them. Last year, Moore only vetoed three bills and let 10 out of approximately 800 become law without his signature.

A coalition of advocates gathered outside the State House in Annapolis last week, urging Moore to veto House Bill 814 — the legislature’s prioritized omnibus juvenile justice legislation.

Its opponents have voiced the most concern about a measure that would allow law enforcement to charge 10- to 12-year-olds for certain firearm offenses, aggravated animal cruelty and third degree sex offenses — using a weapon, threatening or physically harming someone while also committing sexual assault.

In 2022, former Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, allowed the Juvenile Justice Reform Act to go into effect without his signature. That bill was based on recommendations offered by the Juvenile Justice Reform Council, which met over two years to study data and best practices across the country.

That law, among several other measures, limits what charges children ages 10 to 12 can face to include only crime deemed violent under Maryland statute, like murder, rape and carjacking.

Democratic lawmakers and juvenile justice advocates say the 2024 bill will roll back advancements Maryland made two years ago — which they argue is not enough time to gauge if those policies are effective.

“Governor Moore must do the right thing here. He must VETO this crime bill for Maryland’s children,” Zakiya Sankara-Jabar, the co-founder and co-executive director at Racial Justice NOW, said in a statement. “Specifically, Black children, because Black children are absolutely not disposable.”

They have also expressed frustration that policy in the 2024 bill is driven more by anecdotal evidence from prosecutors and police than science and data.

Advocates are in favor of a portion of the bill that would create the Commission on Juvenile Justice Reform and Emerging and Best Practices. If Moore signs the bill, the commission will begin meeting June 1 to recommend and study policies to better the state’s juvenile justice system.

But that isn’t enough for them to let the bill stand.

“Because Wes Moore doesn’t have line-item veto in Maryland, signing it or not is a package deal,” Heather Warnken, the executive director of the University of Baltimore School of Law’s Center for Criminal Justice Reform, said in a phone interview earlier this month. “Some of it is deeply counterproductive and will exacerbate Maryland’s shameful racial disparities.”

House Bill 814 is not on the list of bills to be signed Thursday.

Also not on Thursday’s docket is a bill that members of the newspaper industry say will upend local journalism.

House Bill 1258 would create a master website for registers of wills across the state to publish public notices, removing the requirement that they place legal notices in print newspapers.

In a guest commentary published in The Baltimore Sun on Monday, Rebecca Snyder, the executive director of the MDDC Press Association, said that, if signed, the bill will pack an unrelenting blow to local newspapers’ revenue streams, which could cause some to close and leave journalists, editors and other media members unemployed.

“At its core, H.B. 1258 represents a shortsighted approach to policymaking that prioritizes convenience over the public interest,” Snyder wrote. “By hastily dismantling a system that has served our communities well for decades, this bill threatens to irreparably harm the fabric of local journalism and the democratic values it upholds.”

The Baltimore Sun is a member of the MDDC Press Association, which represents news outlets in Maryland, Delaware and Washington, D.C.

Republicans in the Maryland House of Delegates have also lobbied for Moore to veto legislation that would finance offshore wind projects and allow Attorney General Anthony Brown, a Democrat, to sue firearms dealers and manufacturers for not using reasonable measures to prevent sales to gun traffickers, people prohibited from legally owning a gun, or anyone they believe sought out a firearm to use in the commission of a crime.

Neither bill will be signed Thursday.

“The volume of firearm-related crimes concerns every Marylander and every member of our Caucus. This bill does nothing to address these crimes,” they wrote in a letter to Moore. “Instead, this bill shifts the accountability away from those who commit them, and will do nothing to protect our citizens.”