News & Commentary

The ACLU of RI today filed a federal lawsuit against the City of Woonsocket for unlawfully withholding critically needed grant funds from Sojourner House, a social service agency that helps victims of domestic violence. Filed by ACLU of RI volunteer attorneys Matthew Oliverio and Stephen Prignano, the lawsuit alleges that the City withheld the funds without cause or due process, and retaliated against the agency after it petitioned other government agencies for help in resolving the dispute over the funds.

The ACLU of RI today filed a sex and age discrimination lawsuit against the Newport Grand Casino on behalf of a female employee who claims that, for a decade, she has been paid significantly less than a younger male employee performing the same duties in the same position. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court by ACLU of RI cooperating attorney Lynette Labinger, is on behalf of Paula Borrelli, who has worked at Newport Grand since 2007 and as a “night manager on duty” (MOD) there since 2008. 

If General Assembly leaders thought paying lip service to women’s rights would satisfy Rhode Islanders, the past two weeks have proven them sorely mistaken. In the short time since legislators concluded their business, their failure to act on separate bills addressing sexual harassment in the workplace and reproductive rights – along with the Democratic Party’s refusal to endorse three progressive women incumbents for office – has generated enormous political controversy. 

The 2018 Legislative Session seemed like it should be the year of #MeToo, but when the General Assembly adjourned at the end of June with an exhausting Saturday session (that almost went into Sunday) they failed to approve legislation ensuring equal pay for equal work, or any of the bills that emerged from a commission tasked with helping address sex harassment in the workplace.

This week is another busy one at the General Assembly with about a month of the session left. Here is a summary of some of the bills affecting civil liberties that are being considered in committee or on the floor this week, but note that more may be added to the calendars in the next day:

The ACLU of RI today applauded the formal filing of regulations this week by the RI Department of Education (RIDE), requiring all public school districts to adopt a comprehensive policy outlining the rights of transgender and gender non-conforming students.  The regulations take effect on April 17, 2018, and all schools must have a compliant policy in place by July 1, 2018. “As the federal government continues to undermine the rights of transgender and gender non-conforming students, we applaud RIDE’s actions to mandate school districts to have clear and comprehensive policies in place to protect this group,” said Steven Brown, ACLU of RI executive director. The regulations are the result of an ongoing effort by local organizations, including the ACLU of RI, to protect this group of students, which faces unique discrimination in the school setting. The regulations emanate from a petition that the ACLU and nine other groups – including the RI State Council of Churches, GLAD, and the RI Commission for Human Rights – filed with RIDE last September seeking the adoption of statewide regulations on the subject. Specifically, the new regulations mandate districts have policies in place that are consistent with state and national best practices, and “address, at a minimum, such issues as confidentiality and privacy, discipline and exclusion, staff training, access to school facilities and participation in school programs, dress codes and official school records and use of preferred names and pronouns.” In 2016, RIDE released a detailed model policy that aimed to address the specific needs of trans students and ensure schools’ compliance with civil rights laws.  However, schools were not mandated to adopt the model policy, and research conducted last year by the ACLU revealed that many RI schools had no policy in place to protect the rights of this vulnerable group. The ACLU said it will be monitoring RI schools districts to ensure that those still without a compliant policy implement one by the July 1, 2018 deadline. By the ACLU’s last count, there were at least seven school districts across the state without adequate policies in place, including Chariho, Exeter-West Greenwich, Newport and Woonsocket. Click here for the RIDE regulations.

The ACLU of RI today announced a settlement in its case on behalf of Elizabeth Gooding who, in May 2017, sued the Ocean Community YMCA for violating her right to breastfeed in public.  Parties in the lawsuit have agreed to a resolution of all issues presented in the case, and filed a stipulation of dismissal today, Friday, December 8, 2017, after signing a confidential settlement agreement and release.

Where were you a year ago? We were digesting the election results and hoping that the Trump presidency wouldn’t be based on the same hateful ideas that made up much of his campaign.  By February, we had stopped hoping and were hard at work trying to protect Rhode Island’s immigrant communities.  And that was just the beginning of what has been a challenging year for our founding principles.  We have been VERY busy – both challenging federal threats to our rights, and working to safeguard and expand justice in the Ocean State in response to those threats. Here’s a look at a sample month-by-month snippet of what we have been up to in resisting the Trump anti-civil rights agenda:

In the wake of the Trump Administration’s repeal of federal guidance addressing the rights of transgender and gender non-conforming students, the American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island today released a report finding that only 60% of the state’s school districts currently have policies in place to protect the rights of transgender students. In light of that finding, the ACLU report is calling for the state Department of Education to require adoption and implementation of such policies by all local school districts.  Notably, the report highlights the multitude of issues facing transgender and gender non-conforming students, including privacy and confidentiality, the use of students’ preferred pronouns and participation in gender-segregated activities.