Legislation

While ensuring a healthy workplace is a laudable goal, a piece of legislation rapidly passed by the Senate would have created a far-reaching “civility code” and imposed liability on employers or co-workers who were, among other things, “overbearing.”

We expressed concerns about a piece of legislation which would have required an “individual career and academic plan (ICAP)” for all Rhode Island students in grades six through twelve.

The ACLU once again supported legislation to rectify a disparity in voter representation and require all prisoners to be counted, for voting purposes only, at their last known address.

The Rhode Island Supreme Court has several times rejected the notion that students have a judicially enforceable right to an education; this bill would have ensured and constitutionally established this right as fundamental.

“Moral Turpitude” is a legally ambiguous and antiquated term that could be found in several professional licensing statutes as a basis on which to deny or revoke a person’s professional license. We testified in support of this legislation to eliminate the phrase from those statutes.

In an effort to protect the medical privacy of individual members on an insurance plan, this legislation will require that explanation of benefit documents be sent to the member that they concern, rather than the holder of the plan.

While addressing the important problem of lengthy prison sentences for juveniles who are charged as adults, a weakened version of this policy ultimately passed within the FY 2022 budget.

We strongly supported legislation which would make two important advances towards enhanced criminal justice policy in Rhode Island.

For individuals in RI on green cards, a conviction of many misdemeanor charges can have a severe and overly punishing – and unexpected – impact. This legislation would have decreased the maximum possible misdemeanor by one day to ensure that such harsh consequences don’t flow from a minor offense.