News & Commentary

A federal judge yesterday refused to dismiss an ACLU lawsuit brought on behalf of an ACI inmate who was retaliated against by guards after he publicly criticized Department of Corrections’ mail policies and sought legal assistance from the ACLU (see the ruling and the report and recommendation). The pattern of harassment against inmate Jason Cook, which included strip searches, loss of his prison job, destruction of his personal property, and disciplinary time in segregation, began after Cook was quoted in a Providence Journal story criticizing a DOC policy limiting the written materials available to inmates. The policy was later rescinded.

The ACLU today joined with other education and civil rights advocates, parents and a former employee of Rhode Island Department of Education’s (RIDE) testing office to call attention to the dangerously low NECAP scores released by the Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) earlier this month. The statewide scores for the NECAP, a test that this year will become the determining factor for high school graduation for the class of 2014 and those to follow, showed 4,200, or two in five, Rhode Island 11th graders, are in jeopardy of not graduating from high school next year. These numbers include almost two in five students in the middle-class community of Warwick, providing evidence of the detrimental impact this poor public policy will have on all Rhode Island communities whether upper, middle or lower income.

Between 1999 and June 2012, the Attorney General’s office filed lawsuits against public bodies for violating the state’s Access to Public Records Act (APRA) on only six occasions, less than 4% of the time after finding that violations of the law had been committed. That is one of the findings of a report issued today by the ACLU of Rhode Island, which examines past enforcement of the open records law by the AG’s office and urges stronger enforcement in the future.

The RI ACLU testified yesterday before the House Committee on Health, Education and Welfare in opposition to a bill allowing school districts to charge students for participating in extracurricular activities.  The ACLU agrees with the the R.I. Commissioner of Education, who has consistently found "pay-to-play" to infringe upon the guarentee of a free public education, even when fee waivers are made available.  Read our written testimony for more information.

Last night, in an overflowing State House, the ACLU of Rhode Island delivered testimony in support of 13-H 5015, the same-sex marriage bill. This testimony asserted yet again that Rhode Island's civil union law never even purported to mirror the protections that are available to married couples. Civil unions create a separate and second class status, and an amendment that was attached to the 2011 legislation undermined rights same-sex couples already had under Rhode Island law and discriminated against same-sex couples in very real ways. History has taught us that "separate but equal" simply does not work. The ACLU of Rhode Island continues to urge the legislature to pass full marriage equality for all Rhode Islanders.

The ACLU and a number of other national organizations concerned about access to public records today filed a “friend of the court” brief in the U.S. Supreme Court in support of a Rhode Island resident’s court fight for open government.

The Rhode Island ACLU today announced the settlement of a lawsuit filed in 2010 against the Cranston School Department on behalf of a mother who had been barred from volunteering at her child’s elementary school because she had a past criminal history of drug addiction. The ban was imposed despite the fact that the mother’s drug problems predated her child’s birth and she had since been involved for years in promoting drug abuse prevention.

Today eight groups, including the Rhode Island ACLU, sent a letter to the Board of Elections calling on that body to issue rules for implementing the state's new Voter ID law. In less than two weeks the new law goes into effect and so far the organization responsible for monitoring its enforcement at the polls has not set any guidelines. Without rules from the Board of Elections, during Rhode Island's next election our polling places could be thrown into confusion.

A trial is scheduled to begin next week in the Rhode Island ACLU’s federal lawsuit challenging the City of Pawtucket’s long-standing practice of giving preferential treatment to parochial schools over public schools in granting permits for the use of city athletics fields. The trial will take place before U.S. District Chief Judge Mary Lisi at 10 AM on Monday.