Legislation

We supported a bill which would have allowed for members of the public to testify on an item on a public meetings agenda even if the item has been withdrawn or postponed.

We opposed this legislation which would have given any police officer the authority currently given to high-ranking law enforcement personnel to obtain personally identifiable information from telecommunication companies without any judicial intervention.

We expressed support for legislation that would have allowed the Secretary of State to seek judicial relief if a state or municipal agency is unlawfully destroying or otherwise failing to properly maintain public records, a power that she presently lacks.

While current Rhode Island law prohibits employment discrimination based upon a medical marijuana patient’s status as a cardholder, some employers have claimed that they can fire or not hire a cardholder who tests positive for marijuana on a drug test.

The importance of the passage of the Reproductive Privacy Act in 2019 – and continued advocacy around abortion rights – is especially clear in light of the slew of anti-choice bills which were introduced during this session.

Although the imposition of expansive, mandatory background checks for employment is concerning in itself, even more concerning are those bills which attempt to implement background checks with a notably wide breadth and no meaningful restrictions.

Though hate crimes deserve condemnation, we opposed a piece of legislation that would have expanded the scope of the Hate Crimes Sentencing Act in a way which could have established a hate crime based solely on the defendant’s speech without a finding of animus.

A proposed article in the FY 2022 budget contained several important criminal justice proposals, including provisions providing for geriatric parole and making critical adjustments to statutes concerning community confinement, work-release wages, and parole reform.

We supported this important bill which would ensure that the Rhode Island Promise Program – which provides free tuition to students attending CCRI – appropriately accommodates students with disabilities.