Legislation

A number of bills with civil liberties implications died in the General Assembly this session.

In order to give members a more in-depth sense of the Affiliate’s legislative work, we have picked one topic – open government – and briefly summarize how the ACLU helped shape a variety of pieces of legislation, both large and small, on the issue this session.

The Affiliate achieved its first legislative victory of the session back in February, when the Governor withdrew his extremely dangerous “homeland security” bill just days after he had proposed it.

In an historic collaboration between the civil rights community and local police chiefs, the General Assembly enacted a comprehensive bill designed to tackle the problem of racial profiling in the state.

A bill that would require any person who “lobbies” the executive branch to submit to various reporting and disclosure requirements was significantly amended to address ACLU concerns before being approved.

Three years ago, ignoring constitutional objections raised by the ACLU, the legislature expanded the state’s child pornography law to ban both the possession and distribution of images that merely “appear to be” of a minor engaged in sexual conduct.

The ACLU opposed two Senate bills changing the composition of the state’s criminal justice oversight committee to add a member of a faith-based organization.

Showing that it’s never too late to do the right thing, the General Assembly enacted legislation redrawing Senate district lines around the metropolitan Providence area.

In a rebuff to the Governor, the legislature restored to the FY 2005 budget funding requested by the state judiciary to hire six Spanish-speaking court interpreters.