Mark B. Cohen - Preserving Legal Rights

Preserving Legal Rights

Cohen has repeatedly rejected the argument of business groups that tort liability should be limited. In a legislative debate on April 11, 2011, he asked "Who are we here for? Are we here for victims, or just for defendants, in civil litigation?"

He opposed the deportation of immigrants from Cambodia who already had been punished for crimes they committed and had made new lives for themselves in Philadelphia. He praised the efforts of a volunteer advocacy group for Cambodians, and the Philadelphia Police Department to defuse community tensions in the wake of the killing of Vanna "Tiny" Suk, and an alleged series of incidents harassing Cambodian Americans in his neighborhood, saying "This is by far the most outstanding meeting I have ever seen, under very difficult circumstances. I think this is a good sign for the resolution of these problems."

He supported academic freedom and actively opposed attempts inspired by conservative leader David Horowitz and Pennsylvania legislators allied with him to probe the political beliefs of college professors employed by the state university system.

To preserve financially stressed newspapers in order to further freedom of speech, he "has suggested that the only (new) 'content-neutral' way to to (governmentally) support newspapers and protect quality journalism is to subsidize newsprint." He viewed the long-repealed Fairness Doctrine as producing an improved quality of public debate.

He improved the employment law rights of police officers after they had been engaged in a military deployment, by getting legislation passed of which he was the prime sponsor allowing them to return to work, even if they had been abroad during their required recertification tests. He said that getting experienced police officers back on the streets was both "a matter of public safety" and "a responsibility to protect rights of our military service members.

He supported the inclusion of gays and lesbians in Pennsylvania's Ethnic Intimidation and Institutional Vandalism Act, saying "This bill is not about what ministers or Sunday School teachers say. This bill is about what thugs, hooligans, and murderers do."

More than a year before the Shooting of Trayvon Martin, he dissented from the bipartisan legislative majority and opposed expansion of the Castle doctrine, allowing citizens a broader legal defense for shooting others on their own property or their own workplace.

He supported the rights of all citizens to vote, with or without government issued photo identification. He joined fellow Representatives Dwight E. Evans and John L. Myers and others in protesting the Voter ID legislation enacted in Pennsylvania in front of a PennDot Drivers License Center. He told a meeting of elected officials and the Pennsylvania Voter ID Coalition that "This law (requiring government issued photo ID for each voter, beginning in November, 2012)is going to be a real problem for the very old and the very young. We need to create special street lists of these voters so they can be told about the law. The significance of these two groups is that these groups vote mostly Democratic. Keeping turnout down among these groups lowers the chances (of) Democrats getting elected."

He opposed reductions in unemployment benefits saying that "The best that can be said about this legislation is that it could have been worse."