News & Commentary

The ACLU of Rhode Island has filed a lawsuit against the state Division of Motor Vehicles, charging the agency with a complete failure to comply with an important state law designed to ensure open and responsive government. That law is the Administrative Procedures Act (APA), which requires state agencies to provide advance public notice and seek public comment before they adopt rules and regulations governing their activities.

The ACLU of Rhode Island has called on Attorney General Patrick Lynch to withdraw a recent advisory opinion issued by his office which, the ACLU argues, “has enormous adverse consequences for open government and overturns over 25 years of precedent.”  The opinion held that the Open Meetings Act’s restriction on the use of “electronic communication” to hold meetings does not include “telephonic” communication. The ACLU learned of the opinion last week when a legislative committee heard a bill, sponsored by Sen. Frank Ciccone, designed to overturn that ruling.

The ACLU of Rhode Island today called “homeland security” legislation being proposed by Governor Carcieri “extraordinarily dangerous” with “alarming ramifications for political and labor protest, freedom of association, academic freedom and the public’s right to know.” That is the conclusion reached in a 13-page analysis of the bill prepared by the ACLU and sent out today to various political, labor and academic organizations.

The ACLU said today it will ask state legislators to amend the open records law to require police departments to release arrest reports within 48 hours of a request for the information. The call follows the death of South Kingstown resident Bruce Chappell on Tuesday after being arrested by North Kingstown police. Police officials have refused to release copies of the report of his arrest, citing a provision in the open records law giving public agencies up to ten days to respond to requests for public information.

In the near-final chapter of a long-running ACLU “open records” lawsuit against the Providence Police Department, the R.I. Supreme Court has unanimously ruled that the City of Providence cannot charge the community group DARE (Direct Action for Rights and Equality) for the costs of providing copies of internal police misconduct reports. The Court has also ordered the City to pay the ACLU’s volunteer lawyers their attorneys’ fees dating back to the ACLU’s inception of the litigation in 1995.