News & Commentary

At a Department of Business Regulation hearing scheduled for tomorrow, the ACLU of Rhode Island will be raising significant privacy concerns over proposed regulations that would require many employees at Lincoln Park and Newport Grand to provide detailed financial and other information about themselves. National privacy expert Robert Ellis Smith will be testifying on behalf of the ACLU to note, among other things, that the proposed intrusion on the privacy of employees will likely be of little use to the state, but could be a magnet for identity thieves.

In an important victory for students’ free speech rights, R.I. Department of Education hearing officer Paul Pontarelli issued an opinion today, approved by Commissioner Peter McWalters, agreeing with the ACLU of Rhode Island that the Portsmouth School Committee acted in an “arbitrary and capricious” manner in rejecting the planned yearbook photo of high school senior Patrick Agin on the grounds that it violated the school district’s “zero tolerance” policy for weapons. In the photo, Patrick is dressed in a medieval chain mail coat with a prop sword over his shoulder, representing his long-standing interest in medieval history. Patrick is a member of the Society for Creative Anachronism, an organization that promotes research and reenactments of medieval history.

The Rhode Island ACLU today filed a federal lawsuit against the R.I. State Police, challenging the legality of the detention and transporting to immigration officials of fourteen people, all Guatemalans, who were stopped in a van on I-95 on July 11th after the driver changed lanes without using a turn signal. The lawsuit, filed by RI ACLU volunteer attorney V. Edward Formisano on behalf of eleven of the individuals, argues that the actions by the state police violated the state’s Racial Profiling Prevention Act, as well as the driver and passengers’ constitutional rights to be free from discrimination and from unreasonable searches and seizures.

In a 36-page report released today, the ACLU of Rhode Island charged that many police departments in the state are doing very little to address the well-documented problem of racial profiling that exists in their communities, and that changes in various law enforcement policies and practices that contribute to the problem are essential to adequately confront the issue.

In an effort to protect the rights of violent crime victims, the ACLU of Rhode Island today filed a lawsuit challenging the legality of regulations adopted by outgoing General Treasurer Paul Tavares that authorize the denial or reduction of compensation to such victims based solely on their having an unrelated drug-related criminal history or DUI conviction in their past. The lawsuit, filed in Superior Court by RI ACLU volunteer attorney Frederic Marzilli, is on behalf of the Drug and Alcohol Treatment Association of Rhode Island (DATA). In July, DATA and other organizations that service people with substance abuse problems had sharply criticized the regulations as “discriminatory and mean-spirited.”

The Rhode Island ACLU today said the state Department of Education had failed to adequately review a harmful abstinence-only-until-marriage curriculum developed by Heritage of Rhode Island before letting it back into the schools.  In a five-page letter submitted to the department today, the ACLU urged officials to reconsider the decision, saying that the curriculum raises serious medical accuracy and discrimination concerns.

The ACLU of Rhode Island today filed a lawsuit on behalf of Portsmouth High School senior Patrick Agin, whose planned yearbook photo was rejected by the principal on the grounds that it violates the school district’s “zero tolerance” policy for weapons. In the photo, Patrick is dressed in a medieval chain mail coat with a prop sword over his shoulder, representing his long-standing interest in medieval history. Patrick is a member of the Society for Creative Anachronism, an organization that promotes research and reenactments of medieval history.

In a victory for free speech rights, the ACLU announced today that, less than a month after its filing, South Kingstown political candidate Andrew Bilodeau has dismissed his SLAPP suit against Jonathan Daly-LaBelle.

The ACLU of Rhode Island today filed a federal lawsuit against Rhode Island College for censoring a sign display supporting reproductive freedom that was sponsored by a student women’s rights group on campus. The signs were taken down after administrators received objections about them from a priest. The lawsuit also challenges a new sign policy that the college has adopted in response to this incident. The suit, filed by ACLU volunteer attorney Jennifer Azevedo, argues that the college’s actions and the sign policy violate the First Amendment rights of the student group, the Women’s Studies Organization (WSO) of RIC, and its three student officers, Nichole Aguiar, Sarah Satterlee and Jennifer Magaw.