News & Commentary

Barrington Middle School student “E. Doe” (as he is designated in court papers) is, by his principal’s own account, a “great boy,” “respectful,” and had never been a disciplinary problem. So why, then, have the principal and the school committee spent a year and a half in a relentless battle, all at taxpayer expense, to overturn a three-day suspension against him that Doe successfully challenged as unlawful? Why would the school committee go so far as to actually sue Doe in court and (until the school committee claimed it was never their intent) seek an award of attorneys’ fees against him? And why embroil an innocent student in a court fight after three separate authorities at the R.I. Department of Education (RIDE) unanimously agreed that the suspension infringed on Doe’s rights and violated a law enacted to stem unnecessary out-of-school suspensions?

In the midst of a legislative session, when our workload becomes dominated by the 300-plus bills which our policy team lobbies on every year, it’s hard to remember that there are times outside of the scope of the legislative cycle. But, of course, a substantial amount of our work occurs beyond the months of January through July.

In what the ACLU of Rhode Island calls an “outrageous and shameful” attack on one of its own students, the Barrington School Committee has filed a lawsuit in R.I. Superior Court against a middle school student who successfully challenged before the Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) his three-day out-of-school suspension. In seeking to overturn RIDE’s decision, the school committee is demanding a recovery of its attorneys’ fees against the student and RIDE.

Disability Rights Rhode Island (DRRI, formerly the R.I. Disability Law Center) and attorneys for the American Civil Liberties Union National Prison Project (ACLU) and its Rhode Island Affiliate (ACLU-RI), today filed a federal class action lawsuit against the R.I. Department of Corrections (RIDOC) alleging multiple constitutional violations of the rights of prisoners with serious and persistent mental illness (SPMI).

The R.I. Supreme Court has revised a court rule that favorably resolves objections that had been raised in a federal lawsuit filed last year by ACLU of Rhode Island cooperating attorneys on behalf of SouthCoast Fair Housing (SCFH), which had been prevented by the rule from providing legal help to victims of housing discrimination in RI. As a result of the revisions, SCFH will be dismissing the suit.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island (ACLU) and the National Center for Law and Economic Justice  (NCLEJ) today announced the dismissal of its almost three-year-old lawsuit that challenged the widespread failure of the state Department of Human Services (DHS) to timely provide SNAP food stamp benefits to needy families due to its troubled UHIP computer system.

The ACLU will be in court on Thursday, October 10, 2019 at 9:30am to argue that the federal government must obtain a warrant before accessing the private health information in New Hampshire’s Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP). The hearing will be held in Boston before the First Circuit Court of Appeals.

The ACLU of Rhode Island has called on the Narragansett Town Council to table a proposed discussion of an ordinance tonight that would bar members of the public from making "personal" or "slanderous" remarks, or becoming "boisterous," during the public comment portion of Council meetings.

The ACLU of RI today announced the settlement of an age and sex discrimination lawsuit filed last year against the now-closed Newport Grand Casino on behalf of a female employee who claimed that she had been paid less than a younger male employee performing the same duties in the same position. The suit was on behalf of Paula Borrelli, who had worked at Newport Grand since 2007 until the casino closed in 2018.