News & Commentary

A statement in response to a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, which covers Rhode Island, holding that police are generally required to obtain a warrant before searching the contents of an arrestee’s cell phone.

"So long as we have enough people in this country willing to fight for their rights, we'll be called a democracy."

Four open government organizations today called on Governor Lincoln Chafee to amend legislation he has introduced that would make secret a wide array of government documents and discussions relating to school safety. In a letter to the Governor, the R.I. Press Association, the New England First Amendment Coalition, the ACLU of Rhode Island, and Common Cause Rhode Island called the legislation “a major step backward for parental involvement in critical school matters and for the public’s right to know.” 

Rhode Island governor Lincoln Chafee signed a law legalizing marriage for same-sex couples today. Chafee signed the bill shortly after its passage by the state legislature.

The ACLU of Rhode Island issued the following statement today in response to the consideration of legislation by the General Assembly that would amend current laws addressing school safety plans:

Ruling in an ACLU lawsuit, U.S. District Judge William Smith has held that Providence police violated the free speech rights of a local resident when she was barred from peacefully leafleting on a public sidewalk in front of a building where then-Mayor David Cicilline was speaking. In a 35-page opinion, the judge left for further proceedings the question of whether the three named police defendants, including former police chief Dean Esserman, could be held individually liable for violating Ms. Reilly’s First Amendment rights, or whether only the City itself was liable.

The ACLU is troubled by the actions taken by Warwick school officials against students for tweets they sent to RIDE Commissioner Deborah Gist in response to the controversy surrounding RIDE’s high stakes testing requirement. Without in any way condoning the immature nature of some of the tweets, we believe Warwick school officials have intervened in this controversy in a manner much greater than is appropriate.

Below is a statement issued today by Common Cause/RI and the ACLU of Rhode Island regarding the controversy over the Governor’s refusal to publicly release a report he commissioned on Medicaid and food stamp fraud:

The websites of PBS Kids and National Stop Bullying Day, a video clip of the Nutcracker ballet, a website on global warming, and a popular book reading recommendation site are among the many online sites that students and teachers have been unable to access at public schools in Rhode Island due to the use of so-called Internet filtering software.