News & Commentary

The ACLU has called for an independent Congressional investigation into allegations that U.S. Army officials ordered a “psychological operations” (psyops) unit to manipulate members of Congress visiting Afghanistan, including Rhode Island Senator Jack Reed, in an attempt to influence their decisions regarding increased support and funding of the war there.  In a four-page letter sent to members of Congress, Laura Murphy, director of the ACLU’s Washington legislative office, said that the operation, if true, “was conducted in direct violation of U.S. law and Department of Defense (DoD) policy, and represents an affront to core democratic principles of civilian control over the military.”

Fourteen organizations have called on the Board of Regents for Elementary and Secondary Education to refrain from voting today, as planned, on revised regulations governing high school graduation requirements for students in Rhode Island. In a four-page letter to Board members, the groups said that the revised proposal “includes very significant changes from the proposal presented for public comment in January, raises more questions than it answers, and creates new and additional concerns.”

Shortly after Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Kilmartin announced plans to register the state and local law enforcement agencies into the federal Secure Communities program, the ACLU and other organizations wrote a letter to Providence city officials urging them to opt out of the program. Yesterday, Providence Commissioner of Public Safety Steven Pare told a City Council committee that he was seeking to do just that. The ACLU applauded city officials for their efforts.

With the support of more than two dozen community and civil rights organizations, three teenage victims of racial profiling spoke today at a news conference to stress the urgent need to pass legislation designed to strengthen state laws against racial profiling. The victims described how this practice erodes trust between police and the minority community.

Responding to a complaint filed by the Rhode Island ACLU at the end of 2009, the R.I. Commission for Human Rights has issued a finding that there is “probable cause” to believe that a job application form used by CVS Pharmacy, Inc. for various customer service positions violates state anti-discrimination laws that bar employers from eliciting information that pertain to job applicants’ mental or physical disabilities.

State education Commissioner Deborah Gist has decided to push back the timeline for proposed high school graduation requirements that the ACLU had argued would stigmatize 90% of at-risk students and essentially create a caste system in Rhode Island’s schools.  The decision is an important victory for the ACLU and numerous civil rights, community and advocacy groups which had been extremely critical of the proposal ever since it was raised last fall.

The Rhode Island ACLU has asked a federal court to rule unconstitutional, without the need for a trial, the City of Pawtucket’s long-standing practice of giving preferential treatment to parochial schools over public schools in granting permits for the use of city athletics fields. The ACLU’s motion for summary judgment follows months of discovery in the lawsuit, which was filed in October 2009 on behalf of seven Pawtucket parents and their children.

On the eve of a final public hearing on proposed new high school graduation requirements for students in Rhode Island, a diverse group of organizations has highlighted startling statistics documenting the devastating impact that the requirements would have on at-risk students in the state. The groups – the RI ACLU, RI Disability Law Center, the Autism Project of RI, RI Legal Services, Urban League of RI, Progreso Latino, Parent Support Network of RI, the Center for Hispanic Policy and Advocacy, Young Voices and the George Wiley Center – claim that the new policy would essentially institutionalize a caste system in Rhode Island’s public schools.

A number of open government groups expressed deep concern today over regulations adopted by the Rhode Island Department of Public Safety (DPS) that would significantly restrict the information publicly available from state police agencies under DPS’s jurisdiction, including the State Police. The objections, from the Rhode Island ACLU, Common Cause Rhode Island and ACCESS/RI, also targeted the questionable process by which the regulations were adopted.