From redistricting and affirmative action to juvenile life without parole and abortion restrictions, ACLU of RI volunteer attorney Dick Sinapi and ACLU of RI policy associate Hillary Davis offer insight and analysis on this month’s episode of Rights of a Free People.
Posted: Nov 02, 2015
|Category: Civil Rights Category: Criminal Justice Category: Discrimination Category: The "War on Drugs" Category: Voting Rights Category: Women's Rights Category: Workplace Rights
Racial disparities plague public life. Rhode Islanders experience them as early as elementary school and they persist throughout life. As policy makers and state officials discuss how these racial disparities can be addressed in Rhode Island, they must consider a number of bills that will make Rhode Island a better and more equal place for all its residents.
The ACLU of RI is deeply saddened by the death Alvin J. Bronstein, a lifelong civil rights advocate and founder of the ACLU’s National Prison Project. Mr. Bronstein helped to set minimum constitutional standards for prisons across the country through his tireless legal work with the ACLU, and reform prison conditions here in Rhode Island.
Although the methods may change, attacks on women’s health, especially women’s access to abortion and contraception, are nothing new. Fortunately, neither is the ACLU’s ardent defense of reproductive rights. Over the years, our legal program has successfully challenged a number of abortion restrictions in Rhode Island.
This Thursday ACLU of Rhode Island members and supporters will be celebrating another year of protecting civil liberties, and there is still time for you to join us!
Megan Smith, an outreach worker and case manager with House of Hope CDC’s PATH program, and the Rhode Island Coalition for the Homeless, will be honored at our Annual Meeting Celebration, on Thursday, October 22.
We must also stand up for our right to read books that make us laugh, make us cry, or that don’t make us feel much of anything at all. One of my most beloved banned books was one that simply scared me. In fact, it chilled me right to my 6-year-old bones.
Let’s start with an important question. What’s more dangerous: talking animals, curse words and passages that mention sex OR restricting speech and preventing individuals (in some cases children) from freedom of expression and the ability to freely form thoughts about the world around them? For me it’s the latter.
