News & Commentary

ACLU of Rhode Island cooperating attorneys Ellen Saideman and Lynette Labinger today filed a class-action lawsuit challenging the state Department of Labor and Training’s (DLT) actions in summarily freezing weekly unemployment insurance benefit payments to hundreds of Rhode Islanders without any notice or explanation.

The following statement was issued today by ACLU of Rhode Island executive director Steven Brown on the Governor’s announcement and release of the “Crush Covid RI” app:

The American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Rhode Island cooperating attorneys Deborah Gonzalez and Jared Goldstein, and lawyers from the firm Morgan Lewis filed a class-action lawsuit today against federal immigration officials and the Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls. The suit, filed as a habeas corpus petition, seeks urgent relief for a class of over 70 immigration detainees at the facility by calling for their conditional release. The suit was filed as the count of detainees at the facility infected with COVID-19 more than doubled in three days.

As the timeline for a typical legislative session begins to draw to a close, the Rhode Island General Assembly has begun to take small and cautious steps towards reconvening for the remainder of the 2020 session. While the details are still up in the air, there are many questions surrounding the ways in which transparency and public oversight can coexist with the facilitation of legislative efforts to meet during a pandemic, and which types of legislation the General Assembly will prioritize before they formally conclude the session.

The ACLU of Rhode Island today announced a favorable settlement in its third, and latest, class-action lawsuit against the R.I. Department of Human Services related to the state’s UHIP computer system. This suit, filed last December in U.S. District Court by ACLU cooperating attorneys Ellen Saideman and Lynette Labinger, had challenged the adequacy of notices sent by the DHS to some SNAP recipients, demanding that they reimburse the state for benefits overpayments that they purportedly received years earlier.

As part of a nationwide effort organized by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Rhode Island today filed an Access to Public Records Act (APRA) request with state officials to obtain information about Rhode Island’s plans to address a likely, and potentially catastrophic, outbreak of COVID-19 at the ACI. The APRA request was one of dozens filed across the country by ACLU Affiliates today.

Ruling on an emergency ACLU lawsuit, U.S. District Court Judge William Smith this morning issued a temporary restraining order providing for the release by 5 PM today of two immigrants being detained at the Wyatt Detention Center who are at high risk for serious illness or death in the event of COVID-19 infection. The American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island and the National ACLU had filed the lawsuit less than a week ago seeking their release, as well as that of one other detainee whom ICE released hours before the judge heard arguments in the ACLU’s petition on Wednesday.

Today the ACLU released a report showing that Black people in Rhode Island are 3.3 times more likely than white people to be arrested for marijuana possession despite comparable marijuana usage rates among the two racial groups. Similar arrest disparities were documented in a 2013 report issued by the ACLU, but they have gotten worse, not better, over the past decade. The report also shows that the racial disparities are even more pronounced, and way above the national average, outside Providence County. The findings of the new research are especially disturbing given Rhode Island’s marijuana reform over the last decade in decriminalizing arrests for possession of small amounts of the drug.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island and the National ACLU have today filed an emergency lawsuit seeking the immediate release of three immigrants being detained at the Wyatt Detention Center who are at high risk for serious illness or death in the event of COVID-19 infection.