Court Cases

A nationwide group of 25 state domestic violence and sexual assault coalitions, led by the Rhode Island Coalition Against Domestic Violence (RICADV), filed a lawsuit seeking to stop the Trump administration from imposing unlawful restrictions on grants issued by the Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) under the federal Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). This case was formerly named RICADV v. Bondi.

This is the second case filed by a broad coalition of local governments and nonprofit organizations across the country — including Rhode Island-based nonprofits Crossroads Rhode Island and Youth Pride, Inc. — seeking to stop the Trump-Vance administration from creating unlawful and unreasonable restrictions for funding for proven solutions to homelessness, threatening to push hundreds of thousands of families onto the street as cold winter months arrive. This case was filed regarding the 2026 fiscal year notice of funding opportunities (NOFO). See NAEH v. HUD (case number: 1:25-cv-00636) for information about the other case challenging HUD’s NOFOs.

We joined four other ACLU affiliates and the National ACLU to urge the federal appeals court to grant relief in this challenge to the Trump administration’s deportation policies that target pro-Palestinian students exercising their First Amendment rights. A lower court ruled those efforts unlawful.

ACLU of RI cooperating attorneys filed a federal lawsuit against the Warwick City Council for stifling the free speech rights of a local resident who was barred from speaking at a Council meeting about allegations of ethical misconduct aimed at one of its members.

This case was filed in 2025 by a broad coalition of local governments and nonprofit organizations across the country — including Rhode Island-based nonprofits Crossroads Rhode Island and Youth Pride, Inc. — seeking to stop the Trump-Vance administration from creating unlawful and unreasonable restrictions for funding for proven solutions to homelessness, threatening to push hundreds of thousands of families onto the street as cold winter months arrive. This case challenged the 2025 notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) restrictions. Find information about a similar case challenging HUD’s 2026 NOFO here: NAEH v. HUD (case number: 1:26-cv-00436)

A “friend of the court” brief in a public employee free speech case. While not taking a position on the outcome of the case, the brief requests that the appellate court hold that “mocking, derogatory, or disparaging” messages do not receive less First Amendment weight than other speech on matters of public concern, and to have the district court reexamine the case applying the correct standard.

This lawsuit was filed on behalf of five Native Americans at the Adult Correctional Institutions (ACI), and argues that Rhode Island Department of Corrections has refused to accommodate an array of religious practices that Native Americans are routinely allowed to practice in federal and state prisons across the country.