News & Commentary

The ACLU of Rhode Island raised serious concerns about a “computer crime” bill approved by House Judiciary Committee today that would criminalize the electronic dissemination of certain images even if they were taken with the knowledge and consent of the subject. The bill, aimed at combating “revenge porn,” would levy felony charges against individuals, including members of the media, who disseminate certain “sexual images” without permission of the subject even if the image was initially shared with the subject’s consent and sharing the image did not cause harm to the subject.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island has urged the Rhode Island Department of Health to revise proposed regulations that would require physicians to establish written treatment agreements that, among other things, force patients to submit to drug tests on demand in order to receive their pain medication. In written testimony, the ACLU of RI said that these regulations and the department’s model agreement erode patient privacy, undermine the trust that should underlie a doctor-patient relationship, and may encourage individuals with addictions to seek their medication underground.

ACLU of Rhode Island executive director Steven Brown has issued the following statement in response to the Senate’s passage of legislation imposing a three-year moratorium on the use of high stakes testing requirements as a condition of high school graduation: “The ACLU is grateful for the Senate’s action today. Legislative intervention has become necessary because the state Board of Education has repeatedly refused to grapple with the valid criticisms that have been raised about its increasingly untenable high stakes test requirement. In fact, only two days ago, the Board once again rejected calls for public discussion of the issue. “The futures of too many high school seniors are hanging in the balance on the basis of a completely arbitrary high stakes testing requirement and a just as arbitrary waiver process. We are hopeful that the House will now follow the Senate’s lead and take prompt action so that the anxiety and uncertainty plaguing all these students are put to rest.” According to statistics released Monday by the Department of Education, with only a month to go before graduation, more than a quarter of all students with disabilities, more than a quarter of all English Language Learners, and almost one-sixth of all black and Hispanic seniors are at risk of not graduating as a result of the new diploma policy.

The ACLU of Rhode Island applauded the Senate Education Committee’s vote today to approve a bill imposing a three-year moratorium on the use of high stakes testing for high school students.

The ACLU of Rhode Island today commended the Senate Judiciary Committee for approving legislation ending the counting of prisoners as residents of Cranston for the purposes of drawing voting districts. The legislation eliminates the practice of giving extra political power to the voting districts that include the ACI, the result of what is known as "prison-based gerrymandering."

Citizens for Responsible Government, a diverse and growing coalition of Rhode Island individuals and organizations including the American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island, has launched its campaign to defeat a Constitutional Convention. At a press conference in April, the coalition cited a number of reasons why they are opposed to a Constitutional Convention.

In an important victory for open government, a judge ruled today that the RI Board of Education violated the open meetings law when it held a secret meeting last September to discuss whether to reexamine the Board’s controversial “high stakes testing” graduation requirement. The Board held the secret meeting in response to a formal petition filed by the ACLU of Rhode Island and numerous other organizations for reconsideration of the testing mandate.

In a step forward for patients’ privacy rights, the ACLU today announced the favorable settlement of a lawsuit it had filed against the RI Department of Health in 2010, challenging the adequacy of rules the agency had adopted to implement a centralized database of patient health care records. The Health Information Exchange (HIE), authorized by the General Assembly in 2008, allows medical personnel to routinely access a patient’s entire medical file, including mental health records and other sensitive medical information.

The ACLU of Rhode Island today filed a federal lawsuit to prevent the Smithfield Police Department from continuing to enforce an overly broad state law that makes it a crime to circulate anonymous political literature, including unsigned newspaper editorials. The statute, which carries a potential one-year prison sentence, unconstitutionally bars the distribution of any anonymous political literature that relates to ballot questions or that criticizes a political candidate’s “personal character or political action.”