Legislation

In 2011, RI passed a law making seat belt violations a primary traffic offense, meaning that any individual could be pulled over by law enforcement solely for failing to wear a seat belt. The ACLU objected that this legislation would give law enforcement another tool to engage in racial profiling.

In response to last year’s controversy in Cranston over school-sponsored father-daughter dances, the General Assembly severely weakened the state’s sex discrimination laws by allowing schools to promote sex-segregated extracurricular activities.

On May 2, Governor Chafee signed long-overdue legislation establishing full marriage equality in Rhode Island.

For the seventh year in a row, the ACLU of RI was part of a diverse coalition of organizations advocating for passage of the Comprehensive Racial Profiling Prevention Act.