News & Commentary

Is the R.I. Department of Labor and Training (DLT) planning to use facial recognition technology to process unemployment claims? The agency doesn’t want the public to know, so the ACLU of Rhode Island today filed an open records lawsuit to find out. The suit is in response to the DLT’s refusal to provide the ACLU any documents in response to an Access to Public Records Act (APRA) request that sought records related to the agency’s “actual or considered usage of facial recognition and identify verification software … in the course of processing unemployment claims.”

Attorneys for the R.I. Center for Justice and the ACLU have filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of a man who spent almost eight months in solitary confinement at the ACI in retaliation for exercising his First Amendment rights.

The ACLU of Rhode Island and Disability Rights Rhode Island today applauded CVS for withdrawing its petition in a pending U.S. Supreme Court case that the groups said could have turned back decades of national progress promoting the cause of disability rights.

The ACLU of RI today announced the favorable settlement of a federal lawsuit against the Providence Police Department on behalf of two plaintiffs who alleged their free speech rights were violated during a protest.

The RI Department of Labor and Training (DLT) has agreed to take numerous steps to prevent a repeat of last year’s debacle when thousands of residents had their unemployment insurance benefit payments unexpectedly frozen without any notice or explanation. The settlement comes today in a lawsuit filed by ACLU of RI during the early stages of the COVID pandemic, when many in Rhode Island were forced to rely on unemployment benefits to make ends meet.

In an important victory for female student athletes, a federal appeals court today unanimously affirmed approval of a settlement agreement between Brown University and a class of women student-athletes at Brown which resolved a class-action court challenge to Brown’s decision in June 2020 to cut women’s teams from its varsity athletics program.  The court action, filed last June by cooperating attorneys from Public Justice and the ACLU of Rhode Island and two private law firms, alleged that the cuts violated a 1998 consent agreement that the University entered to comply with Title IX, the federal law that guarantees equal access to athletic programs for female athletes.

A coalition of RI open government groups sent a letter to Governor McKee urging him to issue an EO that would allow public bodies to again hold online meetings and require public bodies to provide remote access for the public.

The ACLU of Rhode Island today filed a court brief seeking to beat back an effort to overturn a state law that protects an individual’s right to an abortion.

The letter points out that one of the lockdowns is to accommodate a day-long cookout on Mulligan’s Island where COs and their families will enjoy golf, volleyball and other activities. The food for the cookout has typically been prepared by RIDOC inmates.