News & Commentary

Public meeting agendas in Rhode Island are “often vague, lacking critical information, and at times entirely unhelpful” to residents attempting to participate in their government, a new report by the American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island has found. In reviewing just one week of public meeting agendas, the ACLU of RI discovered numerous violations of a critical portion of the state’s Open Meetings Act (OMA), and recommended that the law be strengthened in order to adequately protect the public’s right to know.

The ACLU of Rhode Island issued the following statement on the passage of Good Samaritan Legislation by the Rhode Island House:

For the second time in three months, the American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island has filed a complaint of sex discrimination against the Harmony Fire District for terminating a female employee who had raised concerns that male and female firefighters were being treated differently. The ACLU filed this latest charge with the Rhode Island Commission for Human Rights and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on behalf of Linda Ferragamo, an EMT/firefighter at the department for more than a decade.

The Rhode Island Medical Society, Protect Families First, and the ACLU of Rhode Island issued the following statement on the passage of Good Samaritan Legislation by the Rhode Island Senate:

The City of Providence can no longer stop musician Manuel Pombo (left) from performing or soliciting donations on city streets as part of a settlement reached today in a First Amendment lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island, the NAACP Providence Branch, the George Wiley Center, the American Friends Service Committee – South East New England, and Providence Student Union today filed an open records request with the Rhode Island State Police requesting the full report of its investigation, conducted in conjunction with the Pawtucket Police Department, into the actions of a school resource officer who was recorded body-slamming a 14-year-old student at Pawtucket’s Tolman High School on October 14 (VIDEO). The groups are also seeking the evidence gathered in the investigation, as well as documents related to any review of the pepper-spraying by Pawtucket Police of students protesting on the day following the incident.

2015 brought many challenges to civil liberties, but thanks to our dedicated supporters and volunteers, we faced them head on and helped protect the rights of all Rhode Islanders. Learn more about our work this past year and help keep us strong as we prepare for 2016.

The ACLU of Rhode Island and five other organizations are urging the Rhode Island Board of Bar Examiners to provide accommodations to breastfeeding women taking the Bar exam. The Board’s current accommodation policies, the groups say, leave individuals who are breastfeeding “at a serious disadvantage during the test.”

It may be the season of giving, but in some Rhode Island communities, those seeking the kindness of others often face punishment simply for asking for help. That dichotomy is being challenged by the American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island today in a federal lawsuit on behalf of a disabled person summoned to court and threatened with arrest for holding a handwritten sign seeking donations as he stood on the median of a Cranston roadway.