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.
We opposed legislation which would have authorized a civil action against parents who demonstrate “willful or wanton disregard” in their exercise of “supervision and control” over a child who has committed...
We strongly supported a piece of legislation which would have expanded the definition of race under our state anti-discrimination laws to include “traits historically associated with race,” importantly...
We strongly supported a bill which will ensure that information on school-based arrests or SRO-related incidents on school campuses, including the number of SROs employed by a school, is made publicly ...
We opposed legislation which would have allowed a court to appoint pro bono attorneys to act as animal advocates in animal cruelty and abuse cases.
We opposed legislation which would have increased the penalties for individuals convicted of unnecessary cruelty to an animal and would have placed a life prohibition on that individual owning or possessing...
In a piece of legislation indicative of the way that the General Assembly often attempts to “carve out” new crimes out of offenses that already are enshrined in state statute, this legislation would have...