News & Commentary

The RI ACLU reported today that, after six months, “an embarrassingly small number of couples” – only forty-six – have taken advantage of Rhode Island’s civil union law, which was enacted over the strong protests of the state’s gay and lesbian community. Those figures contrast sharply with newly-released data from Delaware and Hawaii, states with similar populations to Rhode Island, and which implemented their own civil union laws last month. In the first month of those laws, Hawaii reported the issuance of at least 106 civil union licenses, and Delaware reported more than 85. Meanwhile, in Rhode Island, only seven couples obtained civil union licenses in November and December, including just one for the entire month of December. Those numbers remain far behind any other state with civil union, marriage or domestic partnership laws.

The Rhode Island ACLU has filed a legal brief asking a federal court to reject arguments by the United States government that it be dismissed from the lawsuit on behalf of the family of a detainee who died while in the custody of immigration officials at the Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls. 

The Rhode Island ACLU has today filed a “friend of the court” brief before the U.S. Court of Appeals in Boston, supporting Governor Lincoln Chafee’s legal efforts to prevent the surrender of murder suspect Jason Wayne Pleau to federal authorities to potentially face the death penalty. The brief was joined by the four other ACLU affiliates – from Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine and Puerto Rico – that are in the appeals court’s jurisdiction.

The RI ACLU today announced the favorable settlement of a lawsuit against the Division of Motor Vehicles, which had refused to reinstate a person’s driver’s license based on a “policy” that appeared nowhere in the agency’s rules and regulations. The lawsuit, filed in R.I. Superior Court by ACLU volunteer attorneys Albin Moser and Melissa Braatz on behalf of Warwick resident Marc Lavik, had argued that the DMV’s actions violated the Administrative Procedures Act (APA), an important state law that requires agencies to provide advance notice and a comment period before adopting policies that affect members of the public.

Today, a dozen organizations that work closely with children and families who are poor, minority, non-English speaking, or who have disabilities or other barriers to learning, expressed their strong support for state legislation that would eliminate the drive to implement “high stakes testing” in Rhode Island. “High stake testing” refers to the use of state assessments to determine whether or not a student may graduate, and is currently scheduled to go into effect in 2014 under regulations adopted by the state Department of Education.

The Rhode Island ACLU today applauded the Department of Corrections (DOC) for adopting suggestions to strengthen proposed rules that will govern the use of restraints on pregnant prisoners. These new regulations, based on ACLU-drafted legislation passed last June, generally prohibit the use of handcuffs, shackles, and waist restraints on a pregnant inmate during transport, labor, delivery, and recovery.  They also allow only  “medically appropriate” restraints to be used during the second and third trimester of an inmate’s pregnancy.  Most importantly, the changes adopted by the DOC make important clarifications regarding what restraints are appropriate during each stage of an inmate’s pregnancy and where information about the procedures should be made available to staff and inmates. These changes strengthen what is one of the strongest laws in the country protecting pregnant inmates.

Following up a federal court’s decision earlier this month finding unconstitutional the display of a prayer mural in Cranston High School West’s auditorium, Rhode Island ACLU attorneys have today asked the court to award $173,000 in attorneys’ fees and costs for their successful work on the case. Federal law gives prevailing plaintiffs in constitutional cases like this the right to recover their attorneys’ fees from the defendants, in this instance the City of Cranston and school committee.

The RI ACLU charged today that the Central Falls Receiver is conducting illegal meetings in running the City’s affairs under the state law authorizing his appointment. The claim is contained in a letter that the ACLU sent Receiver Robert Flanders, Jr. earlier this month after his enactment, and then suspension, of an ordinance restricting on-street parking in the city. 

A federal district court heard oral arguments today on whether to dismiss an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official from the federal lawsuit filed by the R.I. ACLU on behalf of the family of a detainee who died while in the custody of immigration officials at the Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls. ACLU volunteer attorneys Fidelma Fitzpatrick and Robert McConnell urged the judge to reject the government’s motion.