News & Commentary

By Johanna Kaiser, Development & Communications Associate You’ll often hear about our work in the courts when we file a lawsuit, settle a case, or receive an important ruling from the court. What you often don’t hear about everything that happens in between the filing of a lawsuit and its resolution. With that in mind, we wanted to offer an update on two of the lawsuits we filed this year. In our case Richer v. Parmelee, we've filed a brief asking for partial summary judgment in the case.

By Hillary Davis, Policy Associate

By Hillary Davis, policy associate

The two pitbulls seized in October by North Kingstown officials despite the owner’s compliance with all relevant state laws will be returned home while the American Civil Liberties Union court case challenging the seizure of the dogs moves forward. A Washington County Superior Court judge Friday found that the ACLU had a likelihood of success its claim that the state law establishing detailed procedures for dealing with "vicious dogs" preempts a local ordinance barring any “vicious” dog from being housed within a mile of a school or day-care facility. The judge therefore ordered the return of the dogs, Balou and Ozzy, to Kristy Miserendino and her family. The ACLU filed the case, Defenders of Animals v. Sunderland, after town officials seized the dogs under the local residence restriction despite a ruling by a state panel that the family could keep the dogs if they took specified precautionary measures. A Town official informed the Miserendinos of the residency restriction only after they had decided not to appeal the hearing panel’s decision. The dogs have been held at the town shelter, which, the lawsuit points out, is also within a mile of a school.

The ACLU today filed a lawsuit in federal district court on behalf of a North Smithfield resident, seeking the return of lawfully possessed weapons that were seized from him over six years ago by the local police department and which the department still refuses to return to him. The lawsuit, filed by RI ACLU volunteer attorney Thomas W. Lyons on behalf of Jason Richer, argues that the North Smithfield Police Department has violated his right to due process and his right to keep and bear arms by retaining his property without just cause. The ACLU successfully filed a similar lawsuit against the Cranston Police Department three years ago.

In April of 2010, we sued the Division of Motor Vehicles for telling thousands of motorists that their license and registration were to be suspended due to unpaid fines without providing any information about the alleged offense, the penalty, or even the date that the offense supposedly took place.

In response to a lawsuit filed this week by the American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island, the Division of Motor Vehicles agreed to the entry of a court order today that will require the agency to first adopt regulations through a public process before using a new database designed to identify and possibly take action against uninsured drivers.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island filed a lawsuit today against the Division of Motor Vehicles for implementing a database designed to identify uninsured motorists without first establishing any regulations to prevent the improper disclosure of drivers’ personal information, avoid mistaken registration revocations, or to otherwise ensure that the program is properly administered by the private out-of-state company contracted to run the program.

The ACLU of Rhode Island testified Friday before the R.I. Vehicle Value Commission to urge the Commission to stop using unrealistic vehicle valuation to determine car taxes and adopt a meaningful appeals process for Rhode Island car owners.