News & Commentary

The ACLU is troubled by the actions taken by Warwick school officials against students for tweets they sent to RIDE Commissioner Deborah Gist in response to the controversy surrounding RIDE’s high stakes testing requirement. Without in any way condoning the immature nature of some of the tweets, we believe Warwick school officials have intervened in this controversy in a manner much greater than is appropriate.

The websites of PBS Kids and National Stop Bullying Day, a video clip of the Nutcracker ballet, a website on global warming, and a popular book reading recommendation site are among the many online sites that students and teachers have been unable to access at public schools in Rhode Island due to the use of so-called Internet filtering software.

A federal judge yesterday refused to dismiss an ACLU lawsuit brought on behalf of an ACI inmate who was retaliated against by guards after he publicly criticized Department of Corrections’ mail policies and sought legal assistance from the ACLU (see the ruling and the report and recommendation). The pattern of harassment against inmate Jason Cook, which included strip searches, loss of his prison job, destruction of his personal property, and disciplinary time in segregation, began after Cook was quoted in a Providence Journal story criticizing a DOC policy limiting the written materials available to inmates. The policy was later rescinded.

A trial is scheduled to begin next week in the Rhode Island ACLU’s federal lawsuit challenging the City of Pawtucket’s long-standing practice of giving preferential treatment to parochial schools over public schools in granting permits for the use of city athletics fields. The trial will take place before U.S. District Chief Judge Mary Lisi at 10 AM on Monday.

Arguing that Providence police have “utterly and completely fail[ed] to establish any legitimate governmental interest—let alone a ‘significant’ one—to justify their conduct,” the Rhode Island ACLU has asked a federal court to rule that police engaged in a clear violation of the free speech rights of a local resident in 2010 when she was barred from peacefully leafleting on a public sidewalk in front of a building where then-Mayor David Cicilline was speaking. In a 47-page brief filed today by RI ACLU volunteer attorney Richard A. Sinapi, the ACLU also seeks a court order requiring city officials to appropriately train and supervise police officers on the First Amendment rights of individuals to peaceably distribute political flyers.

The following statement was issued today by the ACLU of RI in response to the Cranston sex discrimination controversy. The issue arose when a local parent-teacher organization, with initial support from the school, organized a “father-daughter dance” for girls attending the school, and a “mother-son” outing to a Pawtucket Red Sox baseball game for the boys:

The Rhode Island ACLU has called on police departments in the state to adopt clear policies recognizing the First Amendment right of members of the public to video and tape record police activity. In a letter sent to police chiefs in Rhode Island, the ACLU noted recent developments in the law that made adoption of such a policy an important way to ensure that police officers are aware of, and do not violate, the free speech rights of residents.

The Rhode Island ACLU has called on the South Kingstown Town Council to revise various informal policies and procedures that impose unconstitutional restrictions on the free speech rights of citizens at town council meetings. Among the provisions the ACLU is asking to be repealed are a ban on texting by audience members at town council meetings and a prohibition on the mentioning of names of council members when residents address the Town Council during public comment periods.

In response to a lawsuit the ACLU filed in January, the General Assembly has favorably amended a state law that had been interpreted to bar the media from running advertisements containing the names and photographs of public officials without their permission. As a result, the ACLU is voluntarily dismissing the lawsuit as moot.