About Us
Rhode Island Affiliate, American Civil Liberties Union
Who We Are
The American Civil Liberties Union is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to upholding and protecting the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Founded in the 1920s by a small group of devoted civil libertarians, today the ACLU is comprised of more than 500,000 members and more than fifty affiliates and chapters nationwide.
The Rhode Island ACLU is comprised of two separate corporate entities: the Rhode Island Affiliate, American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU Foundation of Rhode Island. Learn more about this distinction.
What We Do
The RI ACLU performs its work in three major ways: litigation, legislation and education. The cases that we take, the bills we lobby on and the public education activities that we sponsor, are designed to help preserve and protect the civil liberties of all Rhode Islanders against government infringement. As a general rule, the issues with which the RI ACLU gets involved break down into the following categories:- First Amendment rights (freedoms of speech, press, assembly and religion)
- the right to due process of law
- the right to equal protection of the laws
- the right to privacy
- open government issues
If, after reading through the information on this website, you believe you have a complaint that the ACLU might be able to help you with, you can send us information about it for review. Learn how to file a complaint with the RI ACLU. For an indication of the kinds of cases we have taken over the years here in Rhode Island, take a look at our list of "Top 50 Cases"(pdf).
Providence, RI 02903