Every year, the ACLU of RI lobbies on hundreds of bills during Rhode Island's annual Legislative Session. Below are some of the bills we have tracked and testified on before the General Assembly. For more info on advocating for the issues you care about, check out our Advocacy 101 Guide. To see how your Reps and Senators voted on various bills over the past few years, visit our Legislative Scorecards page.
This year, the General Assembly dismantled the privacy of employees by permitting the random drug testing of any person working in the “highway maintenance industry,” from highway workers to receptionists...
Following the nationwide revelations that the federal government had obtained millions of cell phone information records from Verizon, the General Assembly failed to protect Rhode Islanders against rampant...
A bill permitting Rhode Island to enter into the International Emergency Management Assistance Compact with other states contained a dangerous provision permitting the suspension of any statutes or...
The state budget adopted in 2007 included $1 million in tax breaks to businesses making donations to “scholarship organizations” that funnel financial aid to students attending private and parochial schools...
In May, the ACLU testified before the Senate Judiciary committee in opposition to well-intentioned legislation designed to provide special driver’s licenses to foreign nationals.
At the request of the Attorney General’s office, the Senate approved legislation imposing additional and mandatory penalties on individuals determined to be part of a “criminal street gang,” up to one extra...