News & Commentary

The ACLU of Rhode Island today filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of a North Smithfield resident, challenging the police department’s refusal to remove from its files a note falsely claiming that he is “dangerous,” “psychologically unstable,” and has numerous weapons at his house. Police officials have acknowledged that they have no basis for the claims contained in the note, which was uncovered while the ACLU was litigating another pending lawsuit on behalf of the resident, Jason Richer.

UPDATE 10/20/18: The ACLU has sent a letter to the Mayor of Providence specifically addressing the issue of the protests taking place in front Richard Gardner's house.

The Providence school bus strike may be over, but the legal actions taken by three civil rights organizations last week to protect the rights of special education students harmed by the strike are not. Instead, the groups are working to ensure that parents of those students receive proper notification of their right to get prompt reimbursement for any transportation costs they incurred in getting their children to school, as well as their children's right to compensatory education for the time they missed classes.

In an important victory for open government, R.I. Superior Court Judge Melissa Long today ruled that the Attorney General must waive fees for any additional documents that are delivered as part of state Representative Patricia Morgan’s request for information on how the AG’s Office spent more than $50M in Google settlement funds. Citing an inherent public interest in the records, Judge Long also rejected the AG’s argument that records requestors should have to prove financial hardship in order to have fees waived.

The ACLU of Rhode Island today filed a “friend of the court” brief in support of state Representative Patricia Morgan’s request for a waiver of more than $4,000 in fees that the Attorney General is demanding in her quest for documents pertaining to the AG’s expenditure of more than $50M in funds from the “Google settlement.” The brief also asks the court to reject the basis offered by the AG for many redactions in the documents that have already been given to Morgan, who has thus far paid more than $3,700 for partial release of the records.

The ACLU of Rhode Island, along with two other civil rights organizations, has today taken three separate legal steps with the R.I. Department of Education (RIDE) on behalf of students with disabilities who are caught up in the ongoing Providence school bus strike. The complaints allege that the failure of the school district to honor its responsibility under the students’ Individual Education Plans (IEPs) to provide transportation to and from school violates federal and state laws protecting the students’ rights.

In a letter recently sent to the state R.I. Department of Transportation, the ACLU of RI called on the agency to “immediately unblock any individuals who are currently being blocked from the @RIDOTNews Twitter account.” The ACLU sent the letter after receiving a complaint from a Twitter user who was blocked from the account after posting tweets that were critical of work being done on a RIDOT project near his residence. In response, DOT officials have indicated plans to unblock all blocked accounts, but the ACLU said it would sue if the unblocking did not occur promptly.

The ACLU of Rhode Island, R.I. Legal Services, and the R.I. Disability Law Center issued the following statement in response to the Providence School District’s reply to the organizations’ October 1 letter calling on the District to make alternative transportation arrangements available to special education students for the duration of the school bus strike:

The ACLU of Rhode Island today issued a critical analysis of the Attorney General’s (AG) response to State Representative Patricia Morgan’s Access to Public Records Act (APRA) request for documents pertaining to the AG’s expenditure of more than $50M in funds from the settlement of a recent Google lawsuit with the State. Representative Morgan has thus far been charged more than $3,700 for partial release of the records, some of which are heavily redacted. The ACLU’s analysis highlights “the clear need for legislation to strengthen the law.”