News & Commentary

In an important victory for students’ free speech rights, R.I. Department of Education hearing officer Paul Pontarelli issued an opinion today, approved by Commissioner Peter McWalters, agreeing with the ACLU of Rhode Island that the Portsmouth School Committee acted in an “arbitrary and capricious” manner in rejecting the planned yearbook photo of high school senior Patrick Agin on the grounds that it violated the school district’s “zero tolerance” policy for weapons. In the photo, Patrick is dressed in a medieval chain mail coat with a prop sword over his shoulder, representing his long-standing interest in medieval history. Patrick is a member of the Society for Creative Anachronism, an organization that promotes research and reenactments of medieval history.

The ACLU of Rhode Island today filed a lawsuit on behalf of Portsmouth High School senior Patrick Agin, whose planned yearbook photo was rejected by the principal on the grounds that it violates the school district’s “zero tolerance” policy for weapons. In the photo, Patrick is dressed in a medieval chain mail coat with a prop sword over his shoulder, representing his long-standing interest in medieval history. Patrick is a member of the Society for Creative Anachronism, an organization that promotes research and reenactments of medieval history.

In a victory for free speech rights, the ACLU announced today that, less than a month after its filing, South Kingstown political candidate Andrew Bilodeau has dismissed his SLAPP suit against Jonathan Daly-LaBelle.

The ACLU of Rhode Island today filed a federal lawsuit against Rhode Island College for censoring a sign display supporting reproductive freedom that was sponsored by a student women’s rights group on campus. The signs were taken down after administrators received objections about them from a priest. The lawsuit also challenges a new sign policy that the college has adopted in response to this incident. The suit, filed by ACLU volunteer attorney Jennifer Azevedo, argues that the college’s actions and the sign policy violate the First Amendment rights of the student group, the Women’s Studies Organization (WSO) of RIC, and its three student officers, Nichole Aguiar, Sarah Satterlee and Jennifer Magaw.

Citing the important free speech issues involved in the case, the ACLU of Rhode Island has today filed a response and counter-claim on behalf of Jonathan Daly-LaBelle, a South Kingstown resident who was sued for defamation by a political candidate, Andrew Bilodeau, a day before this month’s elections. Bilodeau’s suit alleged that Daly-LaBelle defamed him and violated state campaign finance laws by disseminating a political flier that was critical of Bilodeau’s campaign. 

In an important religious freedom case, the ACLU of Rhode Island today filed a 49-page brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals in Boston in support of an ACI inmate who has been barred from preaching during Christian religious services at the state prison. The plaintiff, Wesley Spratt, had been preaching at ACI services for seven years before he was unilaterally stopped from doing so in 2003 based on vague and generalized “security” concerns. In June, U.S. District Judge William Smith upheld the state’s ban in a brief three-page opinion, rejecting ACLU arguments that the ban violates a major federal law designed to protect the religious freedom of the institutionalized.

In response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request and lawsuit filed earlier this year, the American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island today announced it had received documentation confirming that federal officials entered information about a local peaceful protest into a terrorism database.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island today joined a federal lawsuit filed in Philadelphia by the National ACLU to force the Department of Defense to turn over records it wrongly kept on peace groups throughout the country. Along with the National ACLU and five other state affiliates, the ACLU of Rhode Island is seeking to uncover any surveillance documents kept by the Pentagon on local peace groups, as well as on the RI ACLU itself.

In a setback to the religious freedom of institutionalized persons, U.S. District Judge William Smith has ruled that the Department of Corrections could bar an ACI inmate from preaching during Christian religious services at the state prison. The plaintiff, Wesley Spratt, had been preaching at ACI services for seven years before he was unilaterally stopped from doing so based on vague and generalized “security” concerns. In an appeal filed earlier this year, the RI ACLU had argued that the preaching ban violated a federal law designed to protect the religious freedom of the institutionalized. However, in a brief three-page opinion, Judge Smith, while calling the case “somewhat of a close call,” rejected that argument.