Legislation

In May, the ACLU testified before the House Judiciary committee in opposition to a proposed state constitutional amendment responding to the U.S. Supreme Court’s controversial Citizens United decision.

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 the tragic events of Sandy Hook and Aurora, the General Assembly leadership introduced a package of gun control legislation covering a wide variety of issues.

In April, the ACLU testified before the House Judiciary committee on perennial legislation to mandate the carrying of guns by campus police officers.

Across Rhode Island, school districts are blocking from students vastly more information than was intended by the federal law requiring the use of filtering, leaving students unable to complete their assignments and teachers scrambling to change their lesson plans at the very last moment.

The ACLU testified in opposition to legislation amending the state’s medical marijuana act to allow municipalities to impose onerous restrictions on medical marijuana growers, permit landlords to discriminate against their growing tenants, and bar individuals from being a primary caregiver.

In February, the ACLU testified before the House Judiciary committee in opposition to a bill permitting landlords to refuse to rent to individuals based solely on their cultivation of medical marijuana.

In an attempt to combat illicit prescription drug use, Rhode Island maintains a prescription monitoring database. The ACLU testified in support of legislation that would impose privacy protections on the database’s use.