News & Commentary

Just weeks after R.I. Superior Court Judge William Carnes denied a motion by Family Court Judges to dismiss the ACLU’s class-action lawsuit challenging various Truancy Court practices and procedures, the ACLU has amended its complaint in the case, adding four new school districts as defendants - East Providence, South Kingstown, Burrillville and Smithfield.

In an important procedural ruling, R.I. Superior Court Judge William Carnes today denied a motion by Family Court Judges to dismiss the ACLU’s class-action lawsuit challenging various Truancy Court practices and procedures. In a 67-page opinion, the Judge found there was a sufficient basis for the ACLU to begin limited discovery against the defendants in the lawsuit. In the meantime, the Judge called on the parties to assist with a schedule to keep the case on track.

The Rhode Island ACLU has today filed an appeal with the Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education to contest the planned implementation of a mandatory school uniform policy in Woonsocket public schools. The complaint, filed by RI ACLU volunteer attorney John W. Dineen, is on behalf of four parents – Monique Richard, Lisa Desplaines, Angela Lemoine and Tiffany Johnson – and their children. Although the policy is effective September 1st, the ACLU has been advised by school officials that it will not be enforced for thirty days.

From law schools across the nation, twenty professors of legal ethics today filed a “friend of the court” brief opposing efforts by former Chief Judge Jeremiah S. Jeremiah and the Family Court magistrates that preside over Truancy Court proceedings, to remove two National ACLU attorneys from a lawsuit challenging the legality of various Truancy Court practices. The defendants have claimed that the exercise of free speech rights by the attorneys, Robin Dahlberg and Yelena Konanova, by holding a press conference to describe their clients’ claims, constituted “reckless professional misconduct,” and that they should not be permitted to appear in the Rhode Island courts. But the law professors’ brief argues that their public comments constituted “core political speech protected by the First Amendment” and were permitted under the Rhode Island Rules of Professional Conduct for attorneys. The law professors argued that granting the defendants' motion would unconstitutionally “chill the robust debate necessary for democratic governance.”

In court papers released today, the ACLU has fired back at attempts by Family Court Chief Judge Jeremiah Jeremiah and the state’s Truancy Court magistrates to remove two National ACLU attorneys from a lawsuit challenging the legality of various Court practices, based on the attorneys’ exercise of their free speech rights. The judges have claimed that National ACLU attorneys Robin Dahlberg and Yelena Konanova engaged in “reckless professional misconduct” by publicly commenting about the lawsuit at the time it was filed, but the ACLU calls the judges’ effort “nothing more than a heavy-handed attempt to stifle the kind of criticism of governmental activities inherent in our democratic system.”

In a letter faxed today to Coventry School District Superintendent Kenneth DiPietro, the Rhode Island ACLU called for an immediate revision to the school’s dress code policy, which apparently bans students from displaying any images of weapons. Pointing to this week’s highly-publicized incident when eight year old student David Morales was barred from wearing a patriotic hat because it included toy soldiers carrying guns, the ACLU called the dress code clearly unconstitutional. The RI ACLU letter, from executive director Steven Brown, noted:

In an important victory for children’s rights, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Boston today reversed a federal district court ruling that had thrown out a case against the Department of Children Youth and Families (DCYF) for the mistreatment of foster children in its care. RI ACLU volunteer attorneys Andrew Prescott and Steven Richard had filed a "friend of the court" brief last August urging the appellate court to take this action.

The Woonsocket Education Department has agreed to stop sending children to Rhode Island’s unlawfully operated truancy court system and to end its participation in the program completely. The agreement follows a pending class-action lawsuit filed in March by the American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Rhode Island charging that the state’s truancy court system is devoid of due process protections for children in violation of state and federal law.

The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Rhode Island today filed a class-action lawsuit charging that the state’s truancy court system is devoid of due process protections in violation of state and federal law.