Video & Transcript Research : 'liberty'

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TX

Texas 89th Regular

Senate Session Feb 11th, 2025

Texas Senate Floor Meeting

Transcript Highlights:
  • medical And at the end of the day, what they're fighting to protect and defend are our individual liberties
  • for Vaccine Choice for their crucial role in helping in our fight for essential medical freedom and liberty
TX
Transcript Highlights:
  • States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty
  • The government is never bigger than when it takes your liberty. When this state was founded, we...
  • We decided that the person taking your liberty shouldn't be some faceless elected official in Austin,
CA

California 2025-2026 Regular Session

Joint Legislative Audit Committee Jul 15th, 2025

Transcript Highlights:
  • Liberty lied. Liberty misled me. I did not know what I was signing up for.
  • Liberty didn't knock on a door. Liberty didn't give them a warning.
  • I'm a senior vice president with Liberty Health Care, and Liberty has operated the California Conditional
  • So Liberty Health Care, we do contract with Liberty Health Care to do the placement process and to provide
  • If they have any feedback to Liberty, then Liberty will take and address that feedback and look at their
Summary: The Joint Legislative Audit Committee held an oversight hearing on the state auditor’s October 2024 report on California’s Forensic Conditional Release Program (CONREP) for sexually violent predators. Members and witnesses discussed public safety, the long delays in finding community housing, the role of local housing committees, and the Department of State Hospitals’ oversight of Liberty Healthcare, which operates much of the program. Several legislators from rural and high-desert districts said their communities have been disproportionately affected by placements and questioned why many placements end up in remote areas. State Auditor Grant Parks said the audit found that CONREP participants were convicted of new offenses less often than sexually violent predators who were unconditionally released, but that 18 of 56 participants had been revoked and returned to state hospitals for noncompliance. He said it took an average of 17 months to place current participants in the community, with 20 additional people awaiting placement for an average of 20 months, and that the program incurred significant pre-placement costs. Parks also said local officials were often unclear about their role, DSH had not given clear guidance at the time of the audit, and California lacks a transitional housing option used in some other states. He reported that DSH had implemented four of the five audit recommendations, while declining the recommendation to explore state-owned transitional housing. DSH Director Stephanie Clendendon and Liberty representative Ken Carabello defended the program as a court-ordered, highly supervised treatment model intended to reduce reoffending and support reintegration. They said DSH is actively involved in placement review, that Liberty searches countywide under statutory restrictions, and that community feedback and court approval are part of the process. DSH said it has now implemented guidance for housing committee designees, formal program reviews, an outcome tracker, and an analysis of whether to separate some Liberty services into different contracts. DSH continued to oppose transitional housing, arguing it would not solve the core siting and statutory problems and would add cost. Several members remained critical, arguing the program is broken, costly, and unfairly concentrated in certain communities, and some called for major statutory changes or suspension of the program.
KY
Transcript Highlights:
  • That is an act relating to restoring religious liberty, sponsored by Senator Steve Rawlings.
  • SB 60 allows individuals to sue the government for violations of religious liberty.
  • <00:02:59.560><c> prot</c> liberty prot liberty prot protections<00:03:01.360><c> and</c><00:03:01.519
  • </c><00:03:09.040><c> across</c><00:03:09.400><c> the</c> religious liberty across the religious liberty
  • </c> doing is not violating religious liberty doing is not violating religious liberty or<00:19:34.520
Summary: The committee first took up Senate Bill 60, a Religious Freedom Restoration Act measure sponsored by Senator Steve Rawlings. Rawlings said the bill would strengthen protections for sincerely held religious exercise by requiring government burdens on religion to be justified by clear and convincing evidence of a compelling interest, expanding remedies including attorney’s fees, and waiving sovereign immunity so individuals could sue the government. A committee substitute was adopted, and the bill drew testimony both in support and opposition. Supporters, including Greg Baylor of Alliance Defending Freedom, argued the bill would protect a fundamental right and that similar laws have existed federally and in many states without the feared consequences. Opponents, including Chris Hartman of the Fairness Campaign, Sam Markusen of the University of Louisville, and Rabbi Ben Fred, warned the bill was overly broad, could undermine local anti-discrimination laws, and might invite lawsuits or allow religious claims to be used to justify discrimination. Senator Thomas questioned whether the bill could affect vaccine requirements and public accommodations; Baylor said public health or other compelling interests could still prevail in court and that the bill would not predetermine outcomes. The committee then voted on SB 60, with several members explaining their votes, and reported the bill favorably. The committee then considered Senate Bill 169, sponsored by Senator Danny Carroll, which would expand the Attorney General’s and Kentucky State Police’s administrative subpoena authority in child exploitation investigations to include social networking companies, mobile payment services, and cloud storage services. Attorney General’s office representatives Will Schroer and Matt Heden said the change would modernize investigative tools to help identify online child predators and obtain limited account-holder information such as usernames, IP addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers. Senator Thomas asked about the bill’s use of the term “reasonable cause” instead of probable cause and about the scope of the information obtained; the witnesses said the term is already in statute and that the subpoenas would not authorize searches, only basic identifying information. A motion was made and seconded, and the committee began the roll call vote on SB 169 as the transcript ended.