Two Win Award for Fighting DC's Megan's Law
Remarks of GLAA Secretary Craig Howell Presenting Distinguished Service Awards to
Steven Block, ACLU/National Capital Area and Jeffrey Berman, Public Defender Service
April 27, 2000
One of the more memorable moments during my term as GLAA
President last year occurred in June, when I walked into the offices of the ACLU/National
Capital Area to meet one of their staff attorneys, Steve Block, who had just left me an
urgent telephone message about some then-obscure bill pending before the D.C. Council.
After exchanging pleasantries and seating myself, Steve pointed to one particular
passage in the proposed bill and calmly observed: "If this
language goes into effect, any gay person convicted on a consensual sodomy charge anywhere
in the country will have to list himself here in D.C. as a sexual offender on a public
register."
After patiently scraping me off the ceiling, Steve went on to tell me all about the
proposed Sexual Offenders Registration Act, a.k.a. SORA, a.k.a. "Megan’s
Law."
And thus commenced one of the most convoluted, complex, exhausting, and vexing
legislative battles that I have ever had to endure in more than a quarter of a century
with the Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance. I regret that this battle — which should
never have had to be fought — had to absorb so much of GLAA’s time, energy, and
political capital during my administration, and I thank Rick and all my other colleagues
in GLAA for their vigorous efforts. I also want to thank Councilmembers Jim Graham and
Jack Evans for their leadership on our behalf on the Council.
To recap a very long story, the results of our labors were mixed, at best. While the
bill as finally enacted was considerably better than the original version I saw in
Steve’s office last June, it was still gravely flawed, Constitutionally and
otherwise, and remains an unacceptable threat both to our community and to the community
at large.
Tonight, we honor the two men whose leadership in this struggle can not be praised too
highly: Steve Block of the ACLU/National Capital Area, and Jeffrey Berman of the Public
Defender Service.
Steve, as it turns out, has been volunteering his awesome talents as a staff attorney
for the ACLU for the past nine years. During this period, he has worked on an extremely
wide range of civil liberties issues and has somehow earned himself a reputation as an
expert on every one of them. Indeed, in recognition of his contributions, the
ACLU/National Capital Area presented Steve with its Alan Barth Award at its annual dinner
last month.
During our intensive campaign on Megan’s Law, Steve identified numerous
objectionable features that were seemingly planted like land mines all over the proposed
bill, and developed effective strategies for trying to defuse the worst of them. During
the end game, he displayed great skill in negotiating the final details with the
bill’s proponents, although we were betrayed when they reneged on crucial provisions
on what should have been a settled deal.
Jeff Berman got involved in his capacity as the Acting Special Litigation Counsel for
the Public Defender Service, which he joined after graduating from Yale Law School in
1996. His thorough familiarity with the results of Megan’s Laws in other parts of the
country made him an absolutely indispensable ally throughout the campaign. He was
instrumental in developing language for amendments to the bill that would alleviate if not
eliminate its potential dangers. He made himself and the Public Defender Service
especially valuable by preparing Question and Answer sheets that explained our objections
to the proposed bill both forcibly and fairly. These Q&A sheets constituted a major
portion of the briefing papers given to the Councilmembers and their staffs.
But for all the assistance Jeff provided during the legislative phase of this ongoing
battle, I suspect his most valuable service may yet lie before us. We expect that Jeff and
his colleagues in the Public Defender Service will spearhead the court challenge that
hopefully will lead to the judicial overthrow of the most dangerous elements of our
Megan’s Law.
Steve is here tonight with several members of his family, as is Jeff — whose
virtues include, I must point out, being a native Washingtonian, like both Rick and
myself.
Therefore, I am honored to present the first of tonight’s GLAA Distinguished
Service Awards to Mr. Steven Block and to Mr. Jeffrey Berman.
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