The 153rd General Assembly ends the first leg of its legislative session, passing a series of key bills before recessing until January 2026.
Outlawing the death penalty clears first constitutional hurdle
The firs leg of a constitutional amendment prohibiting the imposition of the death penalty in Delaware passes in the General Assembly.
The death penalty remains unenforceable in Delaware following the legislature’s decision last year to remove the legalizing provision after the State Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional in 2016.
The high court found the capital sentencing statute to be unconstitutional due to its language empowering judges, rather than jurors, to find the necessary facts to impose a death sentence.
Although there is currently no language in state law allowing for the imposition of the death penalty, the door is still open for the sentence to either be brought back or prohibited entirely. The bill's sponsor, State Rep. Sean Lynn (D-Dover), is pursuing the latter route.
The amendment passed in the House with yes votes from only two Republicans last week — it passed in the Senate with no Republican support and an additional no vote from State Sen. Darius Brown (D-New Castle)
Prior to the final vote, Sen. Republican Whip Brian Pettyjohn (R-Georgetown) expressed concern with outlawing the death penalty entirely without an exception for those who murder members of law enforcement.
"All I ask is that we not get lectured to and talked down because of the way we feel and how we vote because of how our community was affected by these types of senseless acts," Sen. Pettyjohn said, speaking to the other side of the aisle.
The first leg of the amendment does not need a signature from Gov. Matt Meyer, but it does need to pass in a subsequent General Assembly to become a part of the state's constitution.
This means the second leg will need to be introduced and approved by both chambers in 2027 or 2028.
New Office of the Inspector General
Almost twenty years after its first introduction in the General Assembly, a bill to establish an Office of the Inspector General heads to Gov. Matt Meyer for signature.
A bill to create an Inspector General’s Office first entered the state legislature in 2007 and has been reintroduced repeatedly since, only to stall each time.
State Sen. Laura Sturgeon (D-Woodbrook) introduced the bill last year, and although it cleared the Senate Finance Committee, it never made it to the floor for a full vote.
This time around, it received unanimous bipartisan approval in the Senate and only one no vote in the House, although several lawmakers were absent for the vote while attending the signing ceremony for the three state budget bills.
The independent, non-partisan Office of the Inspector General (OIG) would investigate potential fraud, waste, mismanagement, corruption and other abuse of governmental resources.
“It is a step to ensure taxpayer funded resources are being managed wisely. It is the value of providing confidence that our state is taking every necessary step to ensure that taxpayer funded resources are being managed wisely and taxpayer dollars are being spent as intended," Sen. Sturgeon said during the bill's Senate vote in May.
The office would share oversight responsibilities with the existing Delaware Department of Justice and the Auditor of Accounts.
Under the bill, the position of Inspector General would not be elected — they would be selected through a process that requires a selection panel to provide three names to the governor for consideration. The governor will then select a nominee and submit the name to the State Senate for confirmation. Once confirmed, the inspector general would serve a term of 5 years.
The fiscal year 26 operating budget includes the roughly $500,000 necessary to begin bringing the office to life next year — if signed into law, the selection process for the inspector general must begin within 60 days of enactment.
In the following years, the office is expected to cost the state around $1.4 million annually to operate.
Criminal justice reform bills
The Senate passes the Richard "Mouse" Smith Compassionate Release Bill for a second time, sending it the governor for signature.
If signed into law, Senate Bill 10 would expand the eligibility criteria for those who qualify for compassionate release, a legal mechanism that allows certain incarcerated individuals to seek early release under specific circumstances.
Current Delaware law only allows sentence modification applications for good cause to be filed by the Department of Correction (DOC) and criteria includes rehabilitation, serious medical illness or infirmity and prison overcrowding.
The proposed changes would retain serious medical illness or infirmity, but modify the other factors to include:
- Individuals who are aged 60 or older, who have served at least 15 years of their originally imposed sentence, and who have been “rehabilitated”
- Individuals who have served at least 25 years of their originally imposed sentence and who have been “rehabilitated”
After the bill was sent to the House for approval, Speaker of the House Melissa Minor-Brown (D-New Castle) added an amendment codifying that when a court is considering a motion for sentence modification, they must consider "the underlying circumstances and nature of the offense, the felony classification of the offense and the length of the underlying sentence."
This amendment required the bill head back to the Senate for a second and final vote — it passed 19-2.
The fiscal year 26 budget includes the necessary $1.12 million in operating costs to help with the new sentence modification system, but the annual operating cost is expected to reach close to $2 million in subsequent years.
The legislature also passed the final leg of a constitutionalize amendment to eliminate cash bail release for capital murder and other high-level offenses with evidence that the offender would be a threat to public safety if offered conditional release, placing them in preventative detention.
Civil liberty protection bills
Freshman State Rep. Mara Gorman (D-Newark) filed a series of bills to protect civil liberties in May, the majority of which made their way through both chambers in the General Assembly this session.
House Bill 152, would expand the criminal offense of impersonating law enforcement officials to also prohibit the impersonation of a federal officer.
The legislation passed unanimously in both chambers following the recent murders and attempted murders of two state elected officials and their spouses in Minnesota by a private citizen impersonating a police officer.
House Bill 142 did not receive the same bipartisanship, passing with only Republican support from State Sen. Dave Lawson (R-Marydel).
The bill would prohibit a warrantless arrest by a private person in the case of an individual accused in the courts of another state of a felony. It would also strike a provision relating to the authority of an officer to command assistance in making arrests based on charges in another state.
House Bill 153, similar to HB 142, prohibits arrest or detention by any person who does not have explicit statutory authority to carry out an arrest or detention, commonly referred to as a “citizen’s arrest.” This provision passed with the support of two Republicans.
All three of the bills head to Gov. Matt Meyer for signature.
However, two of Rep. Gorman's bills did not make it to the finish line during the first leg of this legislative session.
House Bill 150 would prohibits civil arrests from being made in courthouses without a judicial warrant.
While not targeted specifically to immigration-related cases, Rep. Gorman said during the bill’s committee hearing that some jurisdictions outside Delaware have been using civil arrests to target immigrants, which she says inhibits participation in the courts.
The bill was released from committee just over a week ago, but it did not make it to the House floor for a full vote.
Another piece of legislation from Rep. Gorman, House Bill 151, never received an initial committee hearing. It would prohibit the operation of private detention facilities in Delaware.
While there are currently no private detention facilities in the First State, Gorman notes the federal government’s immigration detention system relies heavily on private prison corporations and wants to keep Delaware from contributing to a system that is often not as well-regulated as state-operated detention facilities.
Both of these bills still have the opportunity to advance next year.
Immigration protection bills
House Bill 182, also from Rep. Gorman, would prohibit law-enforcement agencies from working with federal immigration enforcement agencies (ICE) to enforce immigration violations or share or share immigration enforcement related data.
The bill follows an announcement from the Camden Police Department in April that it entered into an enforcement agreement with ICE — the department walked that agreement back just a week later after facing public backlash.
Rep. Lynn introduced six additional bills related to immigration protections, but none of them crossed the finish line this year.
A breakdown of all of Rep. Lynn's stalled bills can be found here.
Healthcare provider protections
Almost two weeks after Gov. Matt Meyer signed an executive order protecting gender-affirming care and providers in the First state, House Bill 205 heads to the governor for signature.
The bill is a blanket medical provider protection bill, ensuring Delaware's healthcare professionals cannot face out-of-state lawsuits and investigations that threaten their practice of medicine.
This includes protections for medical professionals who provide lawful abortion, fertility and gender-affirming care services — it does not shield providers from medical malpractice.
The bill passed in the House with the majority of Republicans in opposition. In the Senate, it passed with only Democratic support.
Free school breakfast for Delaware's public schools
Universal free school breakfast for Delaware public school students passes its final legislative hurdle.
The bill comes after a series of debates over how to make school meals more accessible in the First State. Last year, the legislature passed legislation that expanded the free school meals program to include students who qualify for a reduced-price meal, which is only costing the state an extra $250,000 annually.
Universal free school breakfast will cost the state roughly $3.2 million in fiscal year 26 and is expected to escalate to about $3.5 million by fiscal year 28.
This annual cost is substantially less than the $45 million needed to cover universal free school meals — which was also floated this year — but some Republicans worry its still too expensive.
“It says that all students, regardless of need, get free food, and I disagree. Not because I want kids to go hungry, because I do not believe the government should be paying for my kids, or kids from similar households, to get free food," Joint Finance Committee member State Sen. Eric Buckson (D-Dover) said during the bill's debate in the Senate, arguing the First State cannot afford the fiscal note.
State Sen. Jack Walsh (D-Stanton), the bill's Senate sponsor, argues hungry kids are not as successful in the classroom and that one cannot know "what goes on behind closed doors," regardless of income.
State Sen. Bryant Richardson (R-Seaford) was the only Republican senator to vote in favor of the legislation.
Upon signature from the governor, the bill will go into effect on July 1, 2026.
Limiting book bans in school and public libraries
The Freedom to Read Act would ensure books are not removed from public and school libraries for identity-based, ideological or religious reasons.
It also requires each school district and charter school to develop and implement policies and procedures to review objections to library material in school libraries.
Under the bill, only an enrolled student, parent or guardian or school personnel could make objections to school library material and any library material under review must remain available for use until the review process is completed.
The bill passed the House 27-10 with some bipartisan support in May — it received no support from Senate Republicans on Monday but ultimately passed.
It heads to Gov. Matt Meyer for signature.
Legalization of direct household wine shipments
The latest iteration of a bill to allow wine shipments direct to consumers passes in the state legislature after thirty years of similar legislation never making it across the finish line.
The legislation would allow wine producers within Delaware or another state to obtain a license and ship wine directly to of age residents, as long as it is done through a common carrier.
The bill would limit the amount of shipped wine per household per year to three nine-liter cases and limits the total amount of wine that the direct shipper of wine can ship to Delaware consumers to 1,800 nine-liter cases annually.
It would also require carriers to receive training regarding how to deliver wine responsibly and obtain the signature of a person 21 years of age or older before delivery.
The bill passed with bipartisan support in both chambers — it will take effect one year after enactment if signed into law by Gov. Matt Meyer.
Gov. Meyer's medical debt relief initiatives
One of Gov. Matt Meyer's core legislative initiatives clears the General Assembly — it would ensure medical debt does not affect an individual's credit score.
The bill had to clear the Senate for a second time following raised concerns from House Republicans on if the bill would cover debt accrued from elective procedures, like plastic surgery.
The House introduced an amendment that would ensure the act only cover healthcare services that include "services for the diagnosis, prevention, treatment, cure, or relief of a physical, dental, behavioral, substance use disorder, or mental health condition, illness, injury, or disease. These services include any procedures, products, devices, or medications."
The legislation heads to the governor for signature, which pairs with his initiative to leverage $500,000 in state funds to eliminate $50 million in medical debt for qualifying Delawareans. This funding was appropriated in the fiscal year 26 Grants-In-Aid legislation.
The executive branch plans to contract with a nonprofit organization that would use the money to enter voluntary agreements with providers and debt collectors to purchase the debt owed to them.
Individuals who are 400% below the federal poverty line or more or whose debt equates to 5% or more of their annual income would qualify for this relief.
