Legislation

Opposition from the state Board of Elections and the creation by the Secretary of State of a commission to review voting issues kept a comprehensive election reform bill drafted by the ACLU from moving forward.

On the more positive side, no action was taken on legislation requiring individuals to provide certain forms of identification in order to vote at the polling booth.

For the second year in a row, the Senate took no action on an invasive House bill allowing police agencies to give lie detector tests to job applicants.

In another victory for workplace privacy, the Senate also took no action on a House bill that would have given DCYF and licensed day care agencies direct access to job applicants’ entire criminal history.

A bill that would have allowed domestic partners of state employees access to their partners’ pensions, thus providing further security, stability and protections for same-sex families in Rhode Island, overwhelmingly passed the General Assembly, but was vetoed by the governor.

In a disturbing development, the 2007 budget includes $1 million in tax breaks to businesses making donations to scholarship organizations that provide financial aid to students attending private and parochial schools.

After a vigorous and spirited debate, the House approved on a 36-25 vote a bill that would have restricted state and local police from collecting or maintaining information about the political associations or activities of individuals.

ACLU lobbying helped to decisively kill one of the most dangerous bills of the session, a pet proposal of the State Police to give law enforcement broad authority to secretly obtain subscriber information, including bank and credit card numbers, from Internet service providers without a warrant.