News & Commentary

This op-ed by ACLU of Rhode Island executive director Steven Brown appeared in The Providence Journal Friday, October 3, 2014.

The state Division of Motor Vehicles is sharing personal information about innocent Rhode Islanders with a growing federal anti-terrorism database, the American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island charged today. The ACLU has called on the DMV to stop sharing the data and to publicly justify its decision to participate in the first place.

ACLU of Rhode Island and the Brown University Chapter of the ACLU commended Brown University President Christina Paxson’s response to the reports on the incident surrounding former New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly’s planned lecture on the Brown Campus last year. ACLU of Rhode Island executive director Steven Brown issued the following statement: “The ACLU commends President Paxson’s clear and thoughtful response to the civil liberties and civil rights issues raised by last year’s incident. We cannot do better than echo her succinct observation that ‘we do not need to choose between supporting freedom of expression or racial equality. Protecting freedom of expression and furthering human rights are mutually reinforcing.’ “University campuses must be a haven for the expression of unpopular viewpoints if they are to fulfill their basic mission.  As President Paxson noted: ‘If we do not protect the expression of all ideas, valuable ones may not be heard.’ By protecting freedom of expression, seeking to promote diversity of viewpoints, and promoting a more diverse faculty and student body, Brown University will be upholding the best traditions of academic freedom and inclusion.”

Ten years after Rhode Island law began requiring police departments to post online their police complaint forms and procedures, some departments are still not in compliance with some of the law’s basic requirements, a report issued Wednesday by the American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island has found. The requirement, contained in the Racial Profiling Prevention Act of 2004, was designed to make it easier for victims of police misconduct to file complaints with departments. Over the years, some police officials have cited the rarity of complaints they receive to minimize claims about the prevalence of racial profiling or other misconduct.

A number of local non-profit organizations and community groups are urging the Providence City Council to reject amendments to the city’s lobbying ordinance that would require unpaid volunteers to register as lobbyists – and subject them to potentially severe penalties for violations – if they spend just ten hours a year engaged in broadly defined “lobbying” activities with the City. The proposal is scheduled to be introduced at the City Council’s meeting Thursday.

An audit of the 2012 amendments to the state’s Access to Public Records Act (APRA) shows that a number of state agencies and municipal departments, in particular the police, apparently are in violation of the changes to the law. In addition, enforcement of parts of the law appears to be weak or nonexistent.

Despite official reports that there were few voting problems during this week’s primary election, the American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island related today that it had received reports of voters being given incorrect information about their right to vote during Tuesday’s primary election, raising nagging concerns about the implementation of the state’s new photo ID law.

Cranston residents and the ACLU of Rhode Island won a significant victory today in their fight for equal voting power in City elections when Judge Lagueux of the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island denied a motion to dismiss their one person, one vote lawsuit, allowing their case to move forward.

The primary election is still a day away, but the ACLU has already received its first complaint about poll workers unlawfully preventing people from voting under the state’s Voter ID law.