News & Commentary

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.

Reverting to a practice it had forsworn after the ACLU sued on behalf of Rhode Island resident Lilian Calderon, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials have said they may once again snatch and detain undocumented immigrants who show up for interviews with federal immigration officials to legalize their status. The revelation was made last week in a filing in Ms. Calderon’s lawsuit by a new ICE Interim Field Office Director in Boston, Rebecca Adducci.

In a 5-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court today upheld President Trump’s third “Muslim Ban,” overturning previous court rulings against it.  All versions of this “Ban” block immigrants and temporary visitors from several Muslim-majority countries. Steven Brown, ACLU of RI executive director, issued the following statement in response:

The ACLU of Rhode Island issued the following statement regarding the House passage this evening of H 7715A:

We are in the eye of the storm at the State House. While many more bills may be added in the coming day or two, the calendars are not extremely busy thus far for the week. Click here for our civil liberties Advocacy Toolkit. But they nonetheless include a number of bills affecting civil liberties. Here is a summary of some of them:

With only one month remaining for RI school districts to implement comprehensive policies protecting transgender and gender non-conforming students, a recent public records inquiry by the ACLU of RI has found a handful of districts still have no policies in place or have implemented policies that miss the mark entirely.

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:

Dozens of medical professionals and organizations working to stem the opioid crisis in Rhode Island today called on the state Senate to reject legislation sponsored by the Attorney General that would impose up to a life sentence on individuals who provide an unlawful controlled substance to a person that results in that person’s death, regardless of culpability. 

This week is poised to be a busy one at the State House as the General Assembly considers a number of bills affecting civil liberties - some good, some bad. Here is a brief explanation of what to expect at the Capitol this week: