Legislation

In March, the ACLU of RI testified before the House Judiciary committee in favor of legislation to formally repeal a long-invalid law requiring a physician to notify a woman’s husband in order to terminate a pregnancy.

The ACLU testified in support of legislation repealing two laws that attempted to impose unnecessary and undue burdens on women by limiting insurance coverage of abortion, but were also struck down by the courts.

Part of a comprehensive package of legislation by the ACLU aimed at protecting privacy, this legislation would have barred law enforcement from obtaining cell phone location information from telecommunications companies without a warrant, except in certain emergency situations.

In April, the Senate for the second year in a row approved legislation barring health insurance companies from using gender as a factor in setting premiums.

We supported legislation that aimed to reinstate the policy in place under a First Circuit decision by requiring law enforcement to have reasonable suspicion prior to performing a strip search of misdemeanant arrestees, and a warrant based on probable cause before conducting a body cavity search.

Legislation hoped to clarify the acceptable use of ALPR technology, including for locating missing persons and identifying vehicles belonging to individuals with outstanding felony warrants, and place limits on the retention of data collected by ALPRs.

Back for a third time was an ACLU-drafted bill requiring law enforcement obtain a warrant prior to conducting a search of any cell phone.

ACLU-drafted legislation will protect users’ private social media profiles from undue intrusion by barring schools and employers from requesting or requiring students’, employees’ or applicants’ social media passwords, or otherwise gaining access to their private social media accounts.

Over the past several years, the General Assembly has passed a number of new laws requiring nationwide criminal background checks be conducted on employees and volunteers across a wide spectrum of job titles, and this year was no exception.