News & Commentary

The ACLU of Rhode Island today has added new constitutional claims to a lawsuit it filed in May against the State, challenging the state Division of Taxation’s position that a special sales tax exemption for Rhode Island authors applies only to works of fiction, and not to non-fiction, because non-fiction is not “creative and original.” The lawsuit, filed by ACLU of RI cooperating attorney Lynette Labinger, continues to argue that making such a distinction on the content of the work violates the First Amendment’s guarantees of freedom of speech and freedom of the press, but adds new claims in light of troubling developments since the suit’s original filing.

The ACLU of Rhode Island today commended six current and former elected state officials who have signed onto court briefs this month to urge the U.S. Supreme Court not to roll back civil rights protections for LGBTQ people when it hears a trio of discrimination cases this fall. All of the cases  involve people who were fired for being LGBTQ.

Calling it “one of the most damaging decisions affecting the public’s right to know that has been issued, and a significant obstacle to holding police departments accountable,” the ACLU of Rhode Island has launched a two-pronged attack on a 2017 Attorney General ruling that allows police to keep secret some of its reports of police misconduct. In simultaneous appeals to the Rhode Island Supreme Court and the Attorney General, ACLU of RI cooperating attorney James Cullen is asking for a reversal of that ruling.

As we’ve noted, the ACLU of Rhode Island lobbied on 339 bills and tracked over 800 pieces of legislation over the course of the 2019 legislative session. Of these bills, over 100 passed out of committee and were voted on in either the House, Senate, or both.

A federal jury today awarded $20,000 in damages to North Smithfield resident Jason Richer as compensation for the violation of his due process rights when the North Smithfield Police Department refused, for six years, to return lawfully possessed weapons they had seized from him, and instead demanded that he obtain a state court order to get his guns back.

As we noted last week, the ACLU of Rhode Island lobbied on 339 bills and tracked over 800 pieces of legislation over the course of the 2019 legislative session. Of these bills, over 100 passed out of committee and were voted on in either the House, Senate, or both.

After six months of committee hearings, lobbying, and testifying, the 2019 legislative session concluded last Friday, June 28th. During this time period, our two lobbyists testified or lobbied on 339 bills and tracked more than 800 pieces of legislation. Of the bills we worked on, over 100 passed out of committee in some form.

The ACLU of Rhode Island today filed a federal lawsuit to challenge the constitutionality of a 110-year-old statute that declares inmates serving life sentences at the ACI to be “dead in all respects” with respect to “all civil rights.” The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court by ACLU cooperating attorneys Sonja Deyoe and Lynette Labinger, is on behalf of two ACI inmates who are barred from pursuing legal actions against the Department of Corrections in court because of the “civil death” law. According to the lawsuit, Rhode Island may be the only state in the country still enforcing a law like this, whose origins date back to ancient English common law.

The ACLU of Rhode Island today announced the favorable settlement of a lawsuit it filed two years ago against a Smithfield ordinance that the ACLU argued was an attempt to undermine the state’s medical marijuana law by imposing significant burdens on patients’ access to treatment. Under the settlement agreement, the Town has agreed to repeal the ordinance and pay $30,000 in attorneys’ fees.