July 1 Brings Broad Policy Shifts Across VA, MD, and DC

Starting July 1, Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, D.C. implement a broad slate of new laws covering Virginia’s gun safety and ICE-cooperation rules, immigrant-worker protections and automatic sealing of many criminal records, contraception coverage, and renter protections; Maryland imposes bell-to-bell school cellphone bans and requires free period products on campus, while allowing cocktails-to-go in Baltimore County; D.C. raises the minimum wage for all workers (with higher pay for tipped workers) and enacts related workplace and civics-related policy changes.