News & Commentary

In a case raising important issues of freedom of speech, the Rhode Island ACLU has intervened in Family Court on behalf of a Barrington woman who has been barred by the Court from posting on the Internet any details about a pending Family Court custody proceeding in which her brother is involved. In a motion filed with the Court, RI ACLU volunteer attorney H. Jefferson Melish calls the ban a violation of Michelle Langlois’ First Amendment rights. The motion also argues that the Family Court had no jurisdiction to issue the order because the proceeding was filed in Kent County, even though neither party lives in that county.

The Rhode Island ACLU has filed a motion in federal court, seeking a declaration, without the need for a trial, that the Town of Narragansett’s highly-publicized “orange sticker” ordinance is unconstitutional. In a 22-page brief accompanying the motion for “summary judgment,” the ACLU also requests a permanent injunction against the Town, barring enforcement of the ordinance.

The Rhode Island ACLU and a national organization that promotes economic justice for low-income families have today filed a federal lawsuit against the state Department of Human Services, alleging that the state’s failure to timely process food stamp applications is resulting in the denial of “desperately needed assistance to help [applicants] feed their families,” and forcing them to “suffer hunger as a result.” The class-action lawsuit, filed by RI ACLU volunteer attorney Lynette Labinger and attorneys for the National Center for Law and Economic Justice, seeks an injunction requiring the state to process food stamp applications within the time frames established by federal law, and a temporary restraining order to provide immediate benefits to the suit’s named plaintiff.

Widespread racial profiling by law enforcement agents remains a pervasive problem in Rhode Island and throughout the United States, according to a report released today by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Rights Working Group (RWG). Government policies are a major cause of the disproportionate stopping and searching of racial minorities by law enforcement agencies, according to the report, which was submitted to the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD).

Saying that the documents could “chill some individuals from engaging in peaceful protest activities,” the RI ACLU today called on Providence Mayor David Cicilline to remove from the City’s website a “protester registration form” and “public viewing guidelines” in anticipation of expected protests during the U.S. Conference of Mayors being held downtown this weekend.

The head of a national project that provides services to trafficking victims said today that a bill passed by the RI House of Representatives last month to further criminalize prostitution in the state “is likely to cause severe harm to victims of human trafficking by subjecting them to repeated arrest, incarceration, and retraumatization, without increasing the likelihood of locating, identifying, or assisting trafficking victims.” That assessment was made by Andrea Ritchie, director of the Sex Workers Project at the Urban Justice Center in New York City, at a news conference attended by a number of local organizations also opposed to the legislation (H-5044A).

Ruling in a lawsuit filed in February by the Rhode Island ACLU, U.S. District Judge William Smith has today ruled unconstitutional a state law that barred any new political party from collecting in an off-election year the signatures necessary to gain state recognition as a party. The suit had been filed on behalf of the Moderate Party of Rhode Island (MPRI). Under the law, the Party could not begin collecting signatures until January 1, 2010 in order to get on the ballot next year, even though Party members were ready and eager to begin the process of obtaining formal recognition as a political party.

More than a dozen local organizations today announced a campaign this month to bring attention to the critical problem of racial profiling in the state of Rhode Island. Declaring May “Racial Profiling Awareness Month,” the groups have set up toll-free hotline numbers, in both English and Spanish, where people who have been victims of racial profiling can call to tell their stories. Victims can also fill out a survey form on the Internet.

The Rhode Island ACLU has filed a “friend of the court” brief in the R.I. Supreme Court in the appeal addressing ethics charges against former state Senator William Irons. The brief challenges the Ethics Commission’s position that adoption of the constitutional amendment establishing the Commission effectively repealed the Constitution’s so-called “speech in debate clause” that provides immunity to state legislators for certain legislative actions. The ACLU brief called the Commission’s argument “a launch down a slippery slope of eroding the civil liberties of all Rhode Islanders who come before the Ethics Commission, not just Mr. Irons.”