Legislation

A campaign finance bill introduced only in the last week of the 2019 session raised important First Amendment concerns, prompting the ACLU’s opposition.

Nothing encapsulated the issue of the “statehouse to prison pipeline” better in the 2018 session than the general assembly’s passage of legislation which would punish by up to a year in prison any person who “maliciously teases” a police horse or canine.

This legislation allows Boards of Canvassers to combine voting districts for many elections, and ultimately passed without amendments which we proposed to ensure proper notification to voters and limits on the voters who can be sent to a polling location.

We opposed this bill which would have created an “animal abuse registry” similar to the registration requirements already in effect for persons convicted of sex offenses.

We supported this legislation which would have authorized the expungement of criminal convictions related to the possession of marijuana, presumably in conjunction with the legalization of the drug.

The ACLU opposed this legislation which would have indefinitely extended a reimbursement program for school districts that choose to hire additional SROs.

Both chambers collaborated to put forth a package of bills intended to provide a comprehensive overhaul of the public education system in Rhode Island.

This legislation would have statutorily mandated a study to determine whether these racial disparities exist in both the process to obtain a state license to sell marijuana and in arrest and conviction rates for marijuana-related crimes.