New laws on New Year's Day, from gay marriage to ‘Caylee’s Law’

• Gay marriage becomes legal in Maryland, following the same move this past Saturday in Maine. Same-sex couples from other states are also now recognized in Maine.

• New Hampshire enacts a ban on so-called “partial-birth abortions,” and Montana now requires parental notification for any minor who wants to have an abortion.

• California becomes the first state to write into law expanded official authority to investigate mortgage fraud. Also, large lenders are now prohibited from foreclosing while evaluating a homeowner request for loan modifications. "Homeowners in all 50 states deserve these same strong protections and more," said Norma Garcia, Consumers Union financial services manager, in a statement.

• Pennsylvania now requires that contractors on public-works projects use the E-Verify system to confirm employees’ citizenship. E-Verify measures take effect in several other states as well. Also, Montana moves to withhold state services from illegal immigrants.

• After civil liberties groups and others criticized the practice of employers asking job applicants for passwords to their Facebook and Twitter accounts, that is now illegal in Illinois.

Some say that such a list is evidence that state governments are indeed addressing public concerns, despite polls showing that voters have extremely low opinions of their legislatures.

“For anyone who says our representatives do nothing, just have them take a look at all of the new state laws going into effect on Jan.1. Many of our state lawmakers do a whole lot of something,” says Jessica Levinson, former director of political reform for the Center for Governmental Studies, in an e-mail.

But one question is “whether legislation is the proper avenue through which to fix or solve that problem,” adds Ms. Levinson, who is now a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.

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