Providence Police Obtain Training Funds on Breaking Up "Civil Actions," ACLU Finds

Calling it a “a dubious setting of priorities, a potential blueprint for the violation of peaceful protesters’ free speech rights, and a questionable use of taxpayer money,” the R.I. ACLU today revealed that the City of Providence obtained over $100,000 of FY2004 federal homeland security money – almost 25% of the funds earmarked to the police department – for police officers to attend a training on how to handle protests and broadly-defined “civil actions” that arise out of a Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) incident. Among other things, the course “provides law enforcement officers with the skills and tactics necessary to prepare for and successfully mitigate protesters and their devices.” A catalog for the course further explains: “Civil actions in threat incidents are known by a variety of names: riots, civil disturbances, or protests. From a small, peaceful assembly to a large out-of-control violent confrontation, public safety officials must be prepared to handle the incident.”

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ACLU Criticizes Warwick Public Safety Order Barring Hip-Hop Music

The ACLU of Rhode Island today said that the Warwick Board of Public Safety “set a dangerous and unconstitutional precedent” in banning a local nightclub from hosting hip-hop or rap music. The ban was imposed on Tuesday on “Barry’s” nightclub, in response to an incident earlier this month where a man was shot at the club. Although the club owner had voluntarily agreed to no longer offer this type of entertainment, the Board amended the club’s liquor license to explicitly ban these particular musical events.

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ACLU Challenges Limits on Participation in Ballot Referenda Campaigns

The ACLU of Rhode Island has today filed suit in federal court, challenging the constitutionality of various aspects of Rhode Island’s campaign finance law and the Board of Elections’ interpretations of the law that impermissibly restrict the rights of individuals and entities to campaign for and against ballot questions. The lawsuit, filed by ACLU volunteer attorney Howard Merten, argues that the various laws and policies at issue violate the First Amendment and serve to chill the free speech rights of the ACLU, its contributors and like-minded advocates.

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Judge Rules Unconstitutional Cranston Holiday Display Policy, But Upholds Display

In a mixed decision, U.S. District Judge William Smith today ruled that the City of Cranston violated the First Amendment last year when Mayor Stephen Laffey adopted a policy giving his office unbridled authority to approve the erection of “appropriate” displays for the holiday season in front of City Hall. Agreeing with ACLU arguments, the judge ruled that the policy did not “sufficiently protect the free speech rights of Cranston’s citizens.”

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State Settles ACLU "Provisional Ballot" Lawsuit; Ballots of Voters Without ID Will Be Counted

Responding to an ACLU lawsuit filed earlier this morning, the state Board of Elections has agreed to count all provisional ballots cast by voters who are unable to provide identification at their polling place. The Board had previously indicated that it would disqualify all such ballots cast by individuals who had registered to vote by mail since January 1, 2003 but who did not submit an identification document with their application. ACLU volunteer attorney John W. Dineen called the Board’s reversal of position “a vindication of the voting rights of hundreds of Rhode Island residents.”

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ACLU Files Suit Over Fate of Provisional Ballots

The ACLU of RI has this morning filed an emergency lawsuit against the state, seeking a court order requiring elections officials to count potentially hundreds of ballots to be cast tomorrow that the Board of Elections plans to reject as invalid. The suit, filed by RI ACLU volunteer attorney John W. Dineen on behalf of RI Parents for Progress, a low-income advocacy organization engaged in voter registration activities, argues that the Board’s position is a violation of voter rights and a 2002 federal law known as the Help America Vote Act (HAVA).

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ACLU Demands Change in State Voting Policy that May Disqualify Hundreds of Valid Ballots

In a letter to the state Board of Elections, the ACLU of RI has called on the Board to revise its planned procedures for handling certain provisional ballots that will be cast in Tuesday’s election, because the Board’s policy “has the potential to unfairly disenfranchise hundreds, if not thousands, of legitimate voters – especially voters in poorer districts.”

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ACLU Condemns Proposed Searches of Voters at Polling Booth

The ACLU of Rhode Island today called on RI State Board of Elections Chair Roger Begin and Secretary of State Matt Brown to retract advice given yesterday by the U.S. Attorney’s office to election officials, encouraging them to consider conducting searches of voters’ belongings at polling places on election day.  In a letter faxed today to the two officials, RI ACLU executive director Steven Brown said the search recommendation was “extraordinarily troubling on a number of levels, and raises fundamental constitutional problems.”

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ACLU Calls on Local Hospitals to Reject Federal Funding That Targets Undocumented Immigrants

The ACLU of Rhode Island has called on local hospitals to reject anticipated earmarked federal funding for immigrant health care that could have a serious and negative health impact on undocumented immigrants in the state.

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