News & Commentary

In response to a lawsuit filed by the ACLU this past December, state General Treasurer Frank Caprio has promulgated revised crime victim compensation regulations that will take effect this week. The revised rules better protect the rights of violent crime victims by repealing provisions adopted by former General Treasurer Paul Tavares that authorized the denial or reduction of compensation to victims based solely on their having an unrelated drug-related criminal history or DUI conviction in their past. As a result of the changes, the ACLU indicated it will be dismissing its lawsuit, filed by RI ACLU volunteer attorney Frederic Marzilli, challenging those provisions on behalf of the Drug and Alcohol Treatment Association of Rhode Island (DATA). DATA and other organizations – including the R.I. Medical Society, the R.I. Council of Community Mental Health Organizations and the R.I. Disability Law Center – had sharply criticized the regulations as “discriminatory and mean-spirited” by singling out offenses often committed by people who are suffering from diseases – alcoholism and drug addiction.

In an important victory for the public’s right to know, R.I. Superior Court Judge Gilbert Indeglia today ordered the Central Falls Police Department to release to the ACLU the incident report generated by the fatal shooting last month of city resident Selvin Garrido.

Arguing that it promotes “dangerous medical inaccuracies about pregnancy prevention and sexually transmitted diseases” and “sends an inappropriate message to students from non-traditional households,” thirteen organizations today called on public high school principals and superintendents in the state to reject use of a questionable federally-funded “abstinence only until marriage” sex education program recently approved by the RI Department of Education. The private program at issue is run by Heritage Rhode Island (HRI). Among the diverse groups signing the letter to school officials were the RI Medical Society, the RI Coalition Against Domestic Violence, the RI Academy of Family Physicians, AIDS Project Rhode Island and Youth Pride.

The ACLU of Rhode Island today filed an open records lawsuit against the Central Falls Police Department in order to obtain documents concerning the fatal shooting by police last month of city resident Selvin Garrido, who was killed when police came to his apartment in response to a 911 call. Garrido was shot after allegedly coming at police with a knife in his hand.

The Rhode Island ACLU has asked the R.I. Supreme Court to review an appeal that raises fundamental questions about the legality of the procedures used by so-called “truancy courts” that have sprung up across the state in recent years. The ACLU brief filed in the case argues that essential due process safeguards are absent from the operation of these courts.

In an important victory for religious freedom, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston has reversed a lower court ruling that allowed the Department of Corrections to bar an inmate from preaching during Christian religious services at the state prison.

The Rhode Island ACLU today called “shocking” the position advanced by Rhode Island College (RIC) in court papers that RIC does not have to abide by the First Amendment – or any other constitutional restriction, for that matter – because it is not a government agency for civil rights purposes.

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.