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 strongly supported legislation that eliminates the requirement that an applicant to become a licensed clinical social worker pass a standardized written test, noting that standardized testing can often...
These bills would allow healthcare facilities to conduct certain human-subject research without following the standard protocols requiring informed patient consent and confidentiality. While any such...
The ACLU of Rhode Island appreciated this bill’s concept of trying to dig deeper into school districts and schools that have chronic attendance problems, and to provide supportive services to families where...
This bill would require ballot questions to be “written in plain language reasonably calculated to be understood by persons with an eighth-grade reading level.” It is often very easy for public officials —...
Under state law, municipalities can charge no more than $500 for violations of municipal ordinances that do not rise to the level of criminal offenses. Under this legislation, that number could have doubled...
While this bill makes one minor change in the law — creating a four-year expiration period for the granting of a sales tax exemption to Rhode Island artists for their works — the interpretation of the...