News & Commentary

Twelve years after the ACLU of Rhode Island first filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice about the problem, and two years after the R.I. Judiciary adopted a detailed plan to address the issue, the DOJ announced today it was formally closing its case against the state judiciary for failing to adequately provide language assistance to persons with limited English proficiency (LEP).

RI Legal Services and the ACLU of Rhode Island have filed a formal complaint with the state Department of Education, charging the Providence School District with violating various laws and regulations designed to provide appropriate educational services to students who are also English Language Learners (ELL).

In an important victory against the criminalization of poverty, the ACLU of Rhode Island today announced the favorable settlement of a lawsuit filed last year against the City of Cranston, challenging a city ordinance barring the solicitation of donations from motorists. In a consent judgment entered in federal court today, the City acknowledged that the ordinance violated the free speech rights of Michael Monteiro, who is disabled and supplements his disability payments by soliciting charitable donations.

Following the bill's approval by the House Committee on Health, Education and Welfare today, Rhode Island Medical Society, Rhode Island Health Center Association, Rhode Island Academy of Physician Assistants, Rhode Island Dental Association, Rhode Island Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons and American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island criticized legislation to permit law enforcement access to Rhode Islanders' prescription drug history without a warrant.

The ACLU of Rhode Island today issued the following statement in regard to the Supreme Court’s ruling in The Providence Journal Company et al. v. The RI Dept. of Public Safety:

The ACLU of Rhode Island today commended Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea for introducing, the General Assembly for passing, and Governor Gina Raimondo for signing legislation adopting online voter registration for the state’s residents, and particularly for addressing voters with disabilities.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island and R.I. Legal Services today applauded a Superior Court decision holding that the Cumberland school district could not charge a student a $700 fee in order to attend summer school to avoid repeating ninth grade. The ruling overturned a 2014 decision issued by former state Department of Education Commissioner Deborah Gist that, at the time, was denounced by educational advocacy groups as undermining decades of precedent guaranteeing a free and equal public education to all children in the state.

Addressing a brazen attempt to chill freedom of speech, the American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island today announced it has agreed to provide legal representation to the Warwick Post and the Warwick Beacon, both of which have been threatened with a defamation suit if they write stories about the contents of a public document. 

The American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island has asked a federal court to order the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to release thousands of pages of documents in support of its Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit on behalf of local journalist Philip Eil (left, photo by Natalja Kent), who has been stymied for years in his effort to obtain from the DEA evidence disclosed at a major prescription drug-dealing trial. In its motion for summary judgment filed yesterday, the ACLU called for the release of  “the wrongfully withheld documents post haste.”