News & Commentary

Lately, we’ve gotten a surge of requests for our Know Your Rights information on anti-Muslim discrimination, police practices, and protests and demonstrations.  Given the recent deportation raids, Trump’s “border wall” and “Muslim ban” executive orders, and the nationwide protests that have sprung up in response, we’re not surprised.  Here are quick links to some Know Your Rights pamphlets – to keep you informed and help your efforts to educate others. Feel free to share these widely.

The “blue lives matter” movement has made its way to Rhode Island. On Tuesday, the House Judiciary Committee is scheduled to hear two bills on the subject. One would reinstate the death penalty for the murder of a police officer “by ambush.” The second would enhance penalties for crimes committed against police officers by making them “hate crimes.”

The American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request today with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) local field office in Boston to expose how Trump administration officials are interpreting and executing the president’s immigration ban, and in particular how they appear to be acting in violation of federal courts that ordered a stay on the ban’s implementation. The FOIA request was filed jointly with the ACLU affiliates in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont as part of a coordinated ACLU effort across the country.

“The action of the local authorities in compelling the flag salute and pledge transcends constitutional limitations on their power, and invades the sphere of intellect and spirit which it is the purpose of the First Amendment to our Constitution to reserve from all official control.”

Coming on the heels of false allegations by President Trump of widespread voter fraud, the ACLU of Rhode Island today issued a report indicating that some lawful voters were turned away from the polls in November due to the state’s controversial voter ID law. The report documented a number of other concerns based on observations from a few dozen ACLU volunteer poll monitors during the 2016 general election. The findings generally mirror those contained in a report the ACLU issued after the 2012 Presidential election.

The ACLU of Rhode Island responded today to President Donald Trump’s executive orders on immigration that, among other things, propose the deportation of immigrants merely for being charged with offenses and seek to sanction so-called “sanctuary cities” with a loss of federal funds.

ACLU of RI executive director Steven Brown issued the following statement today in response to President Trump’s call for an investigation into alleged widespread voter fraud:

In recognition of a continuing backlog causing undue hardship to hundreds of poor residents, the ACLU of Rhode Island has set up a telephone hotline for people to call if they are having trouble with their SNAP (food stamp) application being processed in a timely manner due to the state’s months-long UHIP computer fiasco.

A federal court has ruled that federal immigration officials and the state of Rhode Island violated the Constitution in detaining a U.S. citizen without probable cause while the federal government investigated her immigration status.