URI Student Senate v. Town of Narragansett

Rejecting the ACLU’s legal arguments, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit yesterday upheld the constitutionality of the Town of Narragansett’s highly-publicized “orange sticker” ordinance. However, in upholding the ordinance on its face, the court acknowledged that it could still be subject to constitutional challenge in its application to particular cases, and the ACLU plans to go back to court to pursue those challenges.

The Rhode Island ACLU has today appealed the recent court decision upholding the constitutionality of the Town of Narragansett’s highly-publicized “orange sticker” ordinance.

The Rhode Island ACLU today expressed deep disappointment today at a decision by U.S. District Judge William Smith, upholding the constitutionality of the Town of Narragansett’s highly-publicized “orange sticker” ordinance.

The Rhode Island ACLU has filed a motion in federal court, seeking a declaration, without the need for a trial, that the Town of Narragansett’s highly-publicized “orange sticker” ordinance is unconstitutional. In a 22-page brief accompanying the motion for “summary judgment,” the ACLU also requests a permanent injunction against the Town, barring enforcement of the ordinance.

The Rhode Island ACLU has today filed a lawsuit against the Town of Narragansett, challenging the constitutionality of its highly-publicized ordinance which allows police to charge tenants and landlords with allowing, and to place orange stickers on houses that have allegedly been the site of, “unruly gatherings.” The lawsuit, filed in R.I. Superior Court by ACLU volunteer attorney H. Jefferson Melish, is on behalf of the URI Student Senate, as well as four students and three landlords who have been affected by enforcement of the ordinance. The suit argues that the ordinance violates the plaintiffs’ rights to procedural and substantive due process, privacy and freedom of association.