Legislation

The implications of a felony charge versus a misdemeanor are substantial, and impact numerous facets of one’s life, including access to employment, housing and higher education. This legislation would have reclassified simple drug possession from a felony to a misdemeanor.

This legislation would have prohibited the questioning of a juvenile suspected of criminal activity without a parent or legal guardian present.

This legislation creates threat assessment teams for each school in Rhode Island and allows individual school boards to adopt relevant policies for their implementation.

We testified in favor of this critical legislation, noting that open and equal access is a cornerstone to the ubiquitously used and indispensable medium of the internet.

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.