Legislation

In May, the Senate approved legislation prohibiting police from searching juveniles and pedestrians without probable cause or reasonable suspicion of criminal activity.

Rhode Island’s veterans have recently begun reporting facing such discrimination, and current law leaves them with no recourse. The legislation prohibits such discrimination against any service member in the Armed Forces or veteran with an honorable or general administrative discharge.

This bill prohibits the searching of juveniles and pedestrians except when law enforcement has reasonable suspicion or probable cause of criminal activity, resumed data collection, and made certain agreements between law enforcement and immigration officials public.

Complaints by Rhode Island’s veterans that they had been discriminated against in housing decisions because of their veteran status prompted legislation to make such discrimination illegal.

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.

The House passed a resolution, sponsored by Representative Daniel Gordon, calling upon Congress to repeal sections of the National Defense Authorization Act which sanction the indefinite detention without charge or trial of anyone in the United States.