News & Commentary

ACLU of Rhode Island and the Brown University Chapter of the ACLU commended Brown University President Christina Paxson’s response to the reports on the incident surrounding former New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly’s planned lecture on the Brown Campus last year. ACLU of Rhode Island executive director Steven Brown issued the following statement: “The ACLU commends President Paxson’s clear and thoughtful response to the civil liberties and civil rights issues raised by last year’s incident. We cannot do better than echo her succinct observation that ‘we do not need to choose between supporting freedom of expression or racial equality. Protecting freedom of expression and furthering human rights are mutually reinforcing.’ “University campuses must be a haven for the expression of unpopular viewpoints if they are to fulfill their basic mission.  As President Paxson noted: ‘If we do not protect the expression of all ideas, valuable ones may not be heard.’ By protecting freedom of expression, seeking to promote diversity of viewpoints, and promoting a more diverse faculty and student body, Brown University will be upholding the best traditions of academic freedom and inclusion.”

A number of local non-profit organizations and community groups are urging the Providence City Council to reject amendments to the city’s lobbying ordinance that would require unpaid volunteers to register as lobbyists – and subject them to potentially severe penalties for violations – if they spend just ten hours a year engaged in broadly defined “lobbying” activities with the City. The proposal is scheduled to be introduced at the City Council’s meeting Thursday.

Nine local organizations have asked police departments across the state to formally adopt policies codifying the public’s right to record, without interference, the actions of police. The request, contained in a letter sent to all municipal police departments and the State Police, was made in the backdrop of the unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, where police have impeded individuals’ and credentialed journalists’ efforts to document the ongoing protests there.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island has urged Warwick City Council to amend an ordinance barring certain city employees from running for office after a worker faced losing his job if he ran for a seat in the United States Senate.

The ACLU of Rhode Island today filed a federal lawsuit to prevent the Smithfield Police Department from continuing to enforce an overly broad state law that makes it a crime to circulate anonymous political literature, including unsigned newspaper editorials. The statute, which carries a potential one-year prison sentence, unconstitutionally bars the distribution of any anonymous political literature that relates to ballot questions or that criticizes a political candidate’s “personal character or political action.”

The ACLU of Rhode Island has sent a letter to Attorney General Peter Kilmartin urging him to close any criminal investigation into a Facebook page satirizing Rep. Scott Guthrie — a page the ACLU says is a clear exercise of free speech.

The ACLU of Rhode Island has filed an open records request today with the Cranston Police Department in an effort to determine whether the decision by a police captain to engage in blitz ticketing of overnight parking violators, after the Cranston City Council voted down a proposed union contract, was done through official channels.

In response to the ongoing controversy in Cranston involving the apparent retaliation taken against two City Council members for their vote in November on a police union contract, the ACLU has written to Mayor Allan Fung, raising concerns about the investigation of the incident that is being conducted.

The City of Providence has agreed to pay $75,000 to settle an ACLU lawsuit involving the violation of the free speech rights of a local resident three years ago when she was barred from peacefully leafleting in front of a building where then-Mayor David Cicilline was speaking.