News & Commentary

The American Civil Liberties Union charged today that the FBI and local police are engaging in intimidation based on political association and are improperly investigating law-abiding human rights and advocacy groups, according to documents obtained through a series of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. In response, the Rhode Island ACLU today filed a FOIA request seeking similar documents about activities taking place here.

The ACLU has called on Governor Carcieri to reject a proposal that he ask the R.I. Supreme Court to revisit the question of drunk driving roadblocks, which in 1989 the court found to be a violation of the state constitution’s prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures. In a recent letter, Attorney General Patrick Lynch asked the Governor to seek a Supreme Court advisory opinion revisiting the issue.

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.”

As part of a new anti-surveillance campaign which is designed to defend consumers’ personal privacy rights, the ACLU is asking Rhode Island-based CVS and 20 other leading retail, banking and travel businesses across the country to take a “no-spy pledge” to reject government requests to voluntarily turn over information on customers and their transactions.

The ACLU of Rhode Island today announced that a settlement had been reached in a federal lawsuit it filed two years ago against the Woonsocket Police Department on behalf of a woman who was strip-searched and left naked in a holding cell for over five hours after being arrested for “driving under the influence.” Under the settlement, the defendants agreed to pay $65,000 to plaintiff Joann Lanoue in exchange for dismissal of the suit. The agreement specifies that it does not constitute any acknowledgement of wrongdoing by Woonsocket police officials.

The ACLU of Rhode Island has called upon Providence Mayor David Cicilline and the City Council to reject a proposal, floated this past week to raise revenue for the city, of installing so-called “red light cameras” at various intersections in the city. In a two-page letter to City officials, R.I. ACLU executive director Steven Brown argued that installation of the cameras “raises troubling privacy and due process concerns,” and “erodes, in subtle ways, our basic rights and turns on its head the major rationale for traffic safety laws.” Excerpts from the ACLU’s letter appear below: