News & Commentary

Ruling from the bench today, U.S. District Judge William Smith issued a favorable decision in the ACLU’s discrimination lawsuit against the Town of North Smithfield and its plans to hire en masse 21 white males for the Town’s new fire department. Last August, Judge Smith issued a temporary restraining order barring the hiring from taking place. The ACLU’s lawsuit, handled by volunteer attorneys Lynette Labinger and John Dineen, is on behalf of Christine Melendez, who had been prevented from applying for a firefighter position because of the Town’s plans.

The ACLU of Rhode Island has today filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of the environmental group Clean Water Action, challenging a Johnston Town Council directive barring the group from engaging in political door-to-door canvassing between 7 and 9 PM. The lawsuit, filed by ACLU volunteer attorney Carolyn Mannis, argues that the restriction, imposed at a Town Council meeting last month, violates the group’s First Amendment rights.

In response to Governor Carcieri’s recent unsuccessful attempt, as part of a “homeland security” bill, to resurrect World War I statutes banning such things as advocacy of anarchy, the ACLU today announced that legislation is being introduced by Rep. Fausto Anguilla to repeal more than a dozen archaic and unconstitutional, but still active, state laws that infringe upon free speech.

In a three-page letter, the ACLU of Rhode Island has called on members of the Roger Williams University Student Senate to halt continuing efforts to punish the College Republican club for its free speech activities. The ACLU was contacted by the club earlier this week in response to introduction of a Senate resolution that would revoke the club’s charter for its awarding of a $250 “whites only” scholarship as a political statement by the Club about affirmative action. The resolution was narrowly defeated on Wednesday, but the club fears the issue may be brought up again. In its letter to Student Senate President Erin Bedell, the ACLU called the Senate’s “efforts at censorship” both “counter-productive and inimical to the critical goal of any university in promoting wide-ranging, robust and uninhibited speech.”

The U.S. Court of Appeals in Boston today rejected the ACLU’s appeal of a racial profiling lawsuit brought on behalf of a 53-year-old African-American resident of Hopkinton, Bernard Flowers, who was stopped in his car and detained at gunpoint by Westerly police in 2000. By a 2-1 vote, the court, while calling it “a close case,” said that Westerly police had “reasonable suspicion” when they pulled Flowers over. The appeal was handled by ACLU volunteer attorney Thomas G. Briody.

The ACLU of Rhode Island joined with civil rights groups today to formally announce the introduction of comprehensive legislation in the General Assembly to address the widespread documented problem of racial profiling by police in traffic stops. The legislation, being sponsored by Rep. Joseph Almeida and Sen. Rhoda Perry, is the community’s formal response to a Northeastern University study released last summer which showed that the majority of police departments in the state routinely stopped black and Hispanic drivers for traffic violations much more often than whites, and searched their cars much more often as well, even though whites were more likely to be found with contraband when a search was conducted.

The ACLU of Rhode Island today called “homeland security” legislation being proposed by Governor Carcieri “extraordinarily dangerous” with “alarming ramifications for political and labor protest, freedom of association, academic freedom and the public’s right to know.” That is the conclusion reached in a 13-page analysis of the bill prepared by the ACLU and sent out today to various political, labor and academic organizations.

The ACLU said today it will ask state legislators to amend the open records law to require police departments to release arrest reports within 48 hours of a request for the information. The call follows the death of South Kingstown resident Bruce Chappell on Tuesday after being arrested by North Kingstown police. Police officials have refused to release copies of the report of his arrest, citing a provision in the open records law giving public agencies up to ten days to respond to requests for public information.

The ACLU has filed a “friend of the court” brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals in Boston, challenging the state’s attempt to overturn a recent decision from a panel of that court which held that the Urban League of R.I., the NAACP and other plaintiffs have the right to pursue a claim that black voting power on the South Side of Providence was improperly diluted by recently redrawn Senate district lines. The federal panel’s favorable ruling is being reheard by the entire appellate court on February 4th.