News & Commentary

Claiming that the ruling has “significant ramifications for First Amendment rights,” the ACLU has called on the state Board of Elections to reverse its decision barring Cranston Mayor Stephen Laffey from continuing to host a radio talk show on WPRO. That ruling held that Laffey’s “receipt of airtime” from WPRO constituted an illegal “in-kind political contribution” from a corporation.

The ACLU of Rhode Island today announced the favorable settlement of a federal lawsuit it filed last year on behalf of the environmental group Clean Water Action (CWA), challenging a Johnston Town Council directive barring the group from engaging in political door-to-door canvassing between 7 and 9 PM. The lawsuit, filed by ACLU volunteer attorney Carolyn Mannis, successfully argued that the restriction violated the group’s First Amendment rights.

In an important victory for vigorous advocacy by civil rights attorneys, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Boston today reversed District Court Judge Mary Lisi’s sanctions on attorneys in the Cornel Young, Jr. civil rights case for allegedly misrepresenting the judge’s position in court papers. The Rhode Island ACLU had filed a “friend of the court” brief in support of the attorneys. The brief, filed by volunteer attorney Amy R. Tabor, had argued that Judge Lisi’s actions “not only violated the due process and First Amendment rights of both the plaintiff and her attorneys, but will, if not reversed, chill and undermine the independent and vigorous advocacy that is an indispensable component of our system of justice.”

Administrators at Central High School in Providence have allowed sophomore Eliazar Velasquez to return to school after the student was suspended last week for posting photographs of the school principal on a personal website. The photographs depicted principal Elaine Almagno smoking a cigarette on school grounds, in direct violation of state law.

Following a year of correspondence with Providence city officials, the ACLU succeeded in having removed from Roger Williams Park a large and long-standing granite monument of the Ten Commandments. The monument had been on Park property since 1963, when it was donated as part of a nationwide campaign by the Fraternal Order of Eagles.  Some Providence City Council members, however, have started a campaign to have it returned to the City.

Calling it a “a dubious setting of priorities, a potential blueprint for the violation of peaceful protesters’ free speech rights, and a questionable use of taxpayer money,” the R.I. ACLU today revealed that the City of Providence obtained over $100,000 of FY2004 federal homeland security money – almost 25% of the funds earmarked to the police department – for police officers to attend a training on how to handle protests and broadly-defined “civil actions” that arise out of a Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) incident. Among other things, the course “provides law enforcement officers with the skills and tactics necessary to prepare for and successfully mitigate protesters and their devices.” A catalog for the course further explains: “Civil actions in threat incidents are known by a variety of names: riots, civil disturbances, or protests. From a small, peaceful assembly to a large out-of-control violent confrontation, public safety officials must be prepared to handle the incident.”

The ACLU of Rhode Island today said that the Warwick Board of Public Safety “set a dangerous and unconstitutional precedent” in banning a local nightclub from hosting hip-hop or rap music. The ban was imposed on Tuesday on “Barry’s” nightclub, in response to an incident earlier this month where a man was shot at the club. Although the club owner had voluntarily agreed to no longer offer this type of entertainment, the Board amended the club’s liquor license to explicitly ban these particular musical events.

The ACLU of Rhode Island has today filed suit in federal court, challenging the constitutionality of various aspects of Rhode Island’s campaign finance law and the Board of Elections’ interpretations of the law that impermissibly restrict the rights of individuals and entities to campaign for and against ballot questions. The lawsuit, filed by ACLU volunteer attorney Howard Merten, argues that the various laws and policies at issue violate the First Amendment and serve to chill the free speech rights of the ACLU, its contributors and like-minded advocates.

In a mixed decision, U.S. District Judge William Smith today ruled that the City of Cranston violated the First Amendment last year when Mayor Stephen Laffey adopted a policy giving his office unbridled authority to approve the erection of “appropriate” displays for the holiday season in front of City Hall. Agreeing with ACLU arguments, the judge ruled that the policy did not “sufficiently protect the free speech rights of Cranston’s citizens.”