News & Commentary

YOU CAN BE “FATTY” BUT NOT “CHUBBY”; “TIPSY” BUT NOT “DRUNK”; ADVERTISE “HEAVEN” BUT NOT “HELL”; SAY “DOGDOO” BUT NOT “DOOBIE”; BE AN “OLDFRT” BUT NOT A “JOCKY”; AND PROUDLY TRUMPET “FRIAR” BUT NOT “HOOSIER”

“I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked…” - Allen Ginsberg, “Howl”

The 2019 Top 10. A completely unexhaustive list of (some of) the most absurd civil liberties violations we encountered this year. 

In what the ACLU of Rhode Island calls an “outrageous and shameful” attack on one of its own students, the Barrington School Committee has filed a lawsuit in R.I. Superior Court against a middle school student who successfully challenged before the Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) his three-day out-of-school suspension. In seeking to overturn RIDE’s decision, the school committee is demanding a recovery of its attorneys’ fees against the student and RIDE.

The R.I. Supreme Court has revised a court rule that favorably resolves objections that had been raised in a federal lawsuit filed last year by ACLU of Rhode Island cooperating attorneys on behalf of SouthCoast Fair Housing (SCFH), which had been prevented by the rule from providing legal help to victims of housing discrimination in RI. As a result of the revisions, SCFH will be dismissing the suit.

The ACLU of Rhode Island has called on the Narragansett Town Council to table a proposed discussion of an ordinance tonight that would bar members of the public from making "personal" or "slanderous" remarks, or becoming "boisterous," during the public comment portion of Council meetings.

The ACLU of Rhode Island today announced the favorable resolution of a lawsuit it filed in May, challenging the state Division of Taxation’s position that a special sales tax exemption for Rhode Island authors applied only to works of fiction, and not to non-fiction, because non-fiction was not considered “creative and original.” The lawsuit argued that making such a distinction on the content of the work violated the First Amendment’s guarantees of freedom of speech and freedom of the press. The ACLU dismissed the case today after confirming that the authors who applied for exemptions since the suit was filed have had them granted by the Division.

The ACLU of Rhode Island today has added new constitutional claims to a lawsuit it filed in May against the State, challenging the state Division of Taxation’s position that a special sales tax exemption for Rhode Island authors applies only to works of fiction, and not to non-fiction, because non-fiction is not “creative and original.” The lawsuit, filed by ACLU of RI cooperating attorney Lynette Labinger, continues to argue that making such a distinction on the content of the work violates the First Amendment’s guarantees of freedom of speech and freedom of the press, but adds new claims in light of troubling developments since the suit’s original filing.

Calling it “one of the most damaging decisions affecting the public’s right to know that has been issued, and a significant obstacle to holding police departments accountable,” the ACLU of Rhode Island has launched a two-pronged attack on a 2017 Attorney General ruling that allows police to keep secret some of its reports of police misconduct. In simultaneous appeals to the Rhode Island Supreme Court and the Attorney General, ACLU of RI cooperating attorney James Cullen is asking for a reversal of that ruling.