News & Commentary

The RI ACLU today announced the favorable settlement of a federal lawsuit it filed last year against the Town of Johnston and police chief Richard Tamburini for illegally releasing the private drivers’ 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, was on behalf of the firefighter, Edward Simone.

The RI ACLU has sharply blasted a plan announced today by Providence Mayor David Cicilline to “institute random drug testing in the Police Department effective immediately.” The ACLU said the proposal was “clearly illegal” and called it “sadly ironic” for the Department, “in the name of rooting out illegal activity by officers,” to propose a policy that, if implemented, would itself be a crime.

The Rhode Island ACLU expressed disappointment with a federal appeals court ruling upholding the dismissal of a lawsuit the ACLU filed in 2007 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 after the driver changed lanes without using a turn signal. The ACLU lawsuit, filed on behalf of eleven of the individuals, had argued that the detention violated the driver and passengers’ constitutional rights to be free from discrimination and from unreasonable searches and seizures.

R.I. Superior Court Judge Brian Stern today denied the Barrington School Committee’s motion to dismiss an open meetings lawsuit filed against it by the RI ACLU and the Barrington Times.

The Rhode Island ACLU today applauded the General Assembly for approving a series of civil liberties-protective bills over the veto of Governor Donald Carcieri. The three pieces of legislation – covering the right to privacy, civil rights, and gay rights – were enacted into law yesterday by overwhelming margins.

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.

Three organizations involved in patients’ rights issues issued a statement today supporting Rhode Island Hospital’s recent refusal to turn over private medical information about a patient to Providence Police officials. The statement from the groups – the R.I. Medical Society, the R.I. Disability Law Center and the R.I. ACLU – in response to the controversy follows below:

Calling the technology “expensive, ineffective, inefficient and intrusive of civil liberties,” the Rhode Island ACLU today issued a report criticizing legislative efforts to make permanent a three-year experiment allowing municipalities to use “red light cameras.” The 19-page report argues that “no compelling rationale has been offered for allowing for the continued use of red light cameras in the state.”