News & Commentary

The Rhode Island ACLU has filed a motion in federal court, seeking a declaration, without the need for a trial, that the Town of Narragansett’s highly-publicized “orange sticker” ordinance is unconstitutional. In a 22-page brief accompanying the motion for “summary judgment,” the ACLU also requests a permanent injunction against the Town, barring enforcement of the ordinance.

The Rhode Island ACLU and a national organization that promotes economic justice for low-income families have today filed a federal lawsuit against the state Department of Human Services, alleging that the state’s failure to timely process food stamp applications is resulting in the denial of “desperately needed assistance to help [applicants] feed their families,” and forcing them to “suffer hunger as a result.” The class-action lawsuit, filed by RI ACLU volunteer attorney Lynette Labinger and attorneys for the National Center for Law and Economic Justice, seeks an injunction requiring the state to process food stamp applications within the time frames established by federal law, and a temporary restraining order to provide immediate benefits to the suit’s named plaintiff.

The Rhode Island ACLU has filed a “friend of the court” brief in the R.I. Supreme Court in the appeal addressing ethics charges against former state Senator William Irons. The brief challenges the Ethics Commission’s position that adoption of the constitutional amendment establishing the Commission effectively repealed the Constitution’s so-called “speech in debate clause” that provides immunity to state legislators for certain legislative actions. The ACLU brief called the Commission’s argument “a launch down a slippery slope of eroding the civil liberties of all Rhode Islanders who come before the Ethics Commission, not just Mr. Irons.”

The RI ACLU testified yesterday against a Senate bill to set up a government-appointed council to “provide oversight” of youth sports organizations in the state, including the power to impose fines against coaches, players, parents or officials in response to complaints the council receives arising from youth sporting events. The RI ACLU called such government involvement “unnecessary and inappropriate.” 

The Rhode Island ACLU has today filed a federal lawsuit against the City of East Providence, challenging City Charter provisions that impose increased burdens, above and beyond what state law requires, on candidates who wish to run for local office. The lawsuit was filed by RI ACLU volunteer attorney Angel Taveras on behalf of Brian Monteiro, an unsuccessful Ward 2 candidate for the East Providence School Committee in the 2008 primary election.

Calling the technology “expensive, ineffective, inefficient and intrusive of civil liberties,” the Rhode Island ACLU today issued a report criticizing legislative efforts to make permanent a three-year experiment allowing municipalities to use “red light cameras.” The 19-page report argues that “no compelling rationale has been offered for allowing for the continued use of red light cameras in the state.”

The Rhode Island ACLU has today filed a lawsuit against the Town of Narragansett, challenging the constitutionality of its highly-publicized ordinance which allows police to charge tenants and landlords with allowing, and to place orange stickers on houses that have allegedly been the site of, “unruly gatherings.” The lawsuit, filed in R.I. Superior Court by ACLU volunteer attorney H. Jefferson Melish, is on behalf of the URI Student Senate, as well as four students and three landlords who have been affected by enforcement of the ordinance. The suit argues that the ordinance violates the plaintiffs’ rights to procedural and substantive due process, privacy and freedom of association. 

In settlement of a suit filed last month by the Rhode Island ACLU against the Division of Motor Vehicles, the DMV has agreed to halt implementation of a policy requiring all people renewing their driver’s licenses to present their Social Security card. The lawsuit, filed in R.I. Superior Court by ACLU volunteer attorney James Kelleher, had argued that the DMV had no statutory authority to implement the policy and that it violated the due process rights of licensees.

The Rhode Island ACLU has filed a lawsuit against the Division of Motor Vehicles, challenging the agency’s recent implementation of a policy requiring all people renewing their driver’s licenses to present their Social Security card. The lawsuit, filed in R.I. Superior Court by ACLU volunteer attorney James Kelleher, argues that the DMV has no statutory authority to implement the policy and that it violates the due process rights of licensees.