Legislation

The ACLU once again supported legislation to require all prisoners to be counted, for voting purposes only, at their last known address.

This legislation would have precluded the disability of a parent from acting as a basis for denial of issues regarding their children, such as welfare or guardianship.

This legislation would have implemented comprehensive privacy requirements for school-loaned computers.

We testified in favor of legislation which would have implemented a pilot program for harm reduction clinics but noted that a critical part of its success would be statutorily ensuring that law enforcement have no jurisdiction over the clinic.

We supported legislation which would have updated Rhode Island parentage and adoption laws to reflect the diversity of families that live in the state.

The ACLU has consistently opposed the imposition of mandatory minimum sentencing terms because they are ineffective, costly, eliminate individualized consideration of the offender and the circumstances of the offense, and place too much power in the hands of prosecutors instead of neutral judges.

These bills would have ensured judicial oversight in the process of asset seizure by law enforcement, and would have provided for the ability of Rhode Island residents to retain their belongings without the burdens that a civil forfeiture process places upon them.

The ACLU testified on a variety of election-related bills, some of which we supported and some of which we did not.

This legislation would have ensured that a positive drug test cannot become a roundabout way of firing or refusing to employ a patient who is lawfully using medical marijuana.