News & Commentary

Stating that "[g]overnment transparency and support of the public’s right to know are more, not less, critical during emergency situations," the ACLU of RI and Common Cause RI have urged Governor Gina Raimondo to revise an executive order she issued this week that suspends certain provisions of the state's open meetings and public records laws. In  a detailed letter sent to the Governor, the two organizations recognized a need to relax some provisions of those laws, but said that the Order did not sufficiently protect the public's interests in government transparency.

An ACLU of Rhode Island cooperating attorney has filed a charge of race discrimination against the Providence Police Department on behalf of an African-American recruit who was involuntarily dismissed last year from the Police Academy just a few weeks before graduation and after enduring months of harassment from trainers at the Academy. ACLU cooperating attorney Laura Harrington has today also filed a formal claim for damages with the City as a legal prerequisite to the filing of a lawsuit on behalf of the recruit, Michael Clark.

POST UPDATED 3/17/2020: The Rhode Island General Assembly has cancelled all legislative sessions and hearings until further notice to curb the spread of COVID-19. For more information, click here. 

YOU CAN BE “FATTY” BUT NOT “CHUBBY”; “TIPSY” BUT NOT “DRUNK”; ADVERTISE “HEAVEN” BUT NOT “HELL”; SAY “DOGDOO” BUT NOT “DOOBIE”; BE AN “OLDFRT” BUT NOT A “JOCKY”; AND PROUDLY TRUMPET “FRIAR” BUT NOT “HOOSIER”

Calling it a “flagrant breach” of the state’s Access to Public Records Act, the ACLU of Rhode Island has today filed with the Attorney General a complaint against the Narragansett Police Department for refusing to release any copies of its final investigations of complaints of police misconduct.  The complaint was filed by ACLU of RI cooperating attorney James Cullen on behalf of Dimitri Lyssikatos, a member of the Rhode Island Accountability Project.

The ACLU of Rhode Island has issued the following statement in response to the R.I. Supreme Court's decision today ruling that records of the grand jury's investigation of the 38 Studios debacle cannot be released:

“I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked…” - Allen Ginsberg, “Howl”

The ACLU of Rhode Island announced today that the Barrington School District has dropped the lawsuit it filed in October against one of its own students who had successfully challenged before the Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) his three-day out-of-school suspension. Barrington’s lawsuit, which the ACLU had called “outrageous and shameful” when it was filed, had sought to overturn the RIDE decision and also demanded a recovery of attorneys’ fees from both the middle school student and RIDE. The ACLU called the suit’s dismissal “welcome but overdue.”

UPDATE 1/28/20: The Council affirmed the ruling, but directed the Commissioner of Education "to begin the process of revising current ELL regulations." Here is the statement from the organizations that had sought rejection of the ruling: