News & Commentary

The Rhode Island ACLU has filed an administrative complaint against the North Smithfield School Committee for its adoption earlier this year of a “pay to play” policy, charging an “athletic management fee” of $150 for students wishing to participate in interscholastic sports. The complaint, filed before the R.I. Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DOE) by RI ACLU volunteer attorney Merlyn O’Keefe, argues that the policy violates state law and is in direct conflict with a number of opinions issued by the DOE on this issue over the years.

Stating a need “to set the record straight,” the RI ACLU has today released a letter sent to state legislative leaders that responds to calls by police and other advocates for stricter drunk driving laws – including the use of “sobriety checkpoints” – in light of a recent federal report examining drunk driving fatalities in the state.

The RI ACLU has filed a federal lawsuit against the Town of Johnston and police chief Richard Tamburini for illegally releasing the private driver's license information of a firefighter to a Town Councilman as part of a public dispute between the Council and the Fire Department. The lawsuit, filed by RI ACLU volunteer attorney James Kelleher, is on behalf of town resident and firefighter Edward Simone, who was the victim of the disclosure.

The Rhode Island ACLU has asked the state Department of Health to reconsider an order it issued against Rhode Island Hospital on November 2nd, requiring video and audiotaping of surgeries at the facility.

Calling it “a major victory for transparency in our judicial system,” the Rhode Island ACLU today applauded comments from R.I. Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul Suttell, as reported in the Providence Journal, that the Court had no immediate plans to implement a controversial 25-year-old state law allowing retired judges to preside over secret civil cases for compensation. At a public hearing in January, the RI ACLU had raised numerous concerns about the proposal. 

Responding to a complaint filed by the R.I. ACLU in January, the R.I. Commission for Human Rights has found “probable cause” to believe that Senesco Marine, a large ship construction and repair facility in North Kingstown, has violated state anti-discrimination laws designed to prevent job bias against individuals with disabilities.

Saying that the City’s action “raises serious constitutional concerns,” the Rhode Island ACLU has called on Pawtucket Mayor James Doyle to rescind a decision that has prevented a sexuality education center from opening in the city. In a letter to the Mayor released today, Rhode Island ACLU executive director Steven Brown labeled as “pretextual” the city’s purported reasons for barring the center from operating in Pawtucket.

The Rhode Island ACLU has today filed a discrimination complaint against CVS Caremark Corporation, challenging the company’s requirement that job applicants for various customer service and other positions answer certain questions that the ACLU claims are unlawful. The complaint, filed with the R.I. Commission for Human Rights, argues that some of the inquiries violate state and federal laws that generally bar employers from eliciting any information, directly or indirectly, that pertain to job applicants’ mental or physical disabilities.

The Rhode Island ACLU today filed a federal lawsuit against the City of Pawtucket, charging that the Parks and Recreation Division has, for a number of years, given preferential treatment to parochial schools over public schools in granting permits for the use of city athletics fields. The lawsuit, filed on behalf of seven Pawtucket parents and their children, seeks a court order declaring unconstitutional both the preferential treatment to religious schools and the City’s lack of any objective standards for granting permits for use of the fields.