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An ACLU bill that would require schools to take a case-by-case approach in determining the appropriate discipline for students charged with drug, alcohol or weapons violations, passed the Senate but died in the House.

In an important religious freedom case, the ACLU of Rhode Island today filed a 49-page brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals in Boston in support of an ACI inmate who has been barred from preaching during Christian religious services at the state prison. The plaintiff, Wesley Spratt, had been preaching at ACI services for seven years before he was unilaterally stopped from doing so in 2003 based on vague and generalized “security” concerns. In June, U.S. District Judge William Smith upheld the state’s ban in a brief three-page opinion, rejecting ACLU arguments that the ban violates a major federal law designed to protect the religious freedom of the institutionalized.

Following the death this weekend of a Woonsocket resident after being “stunned” with a Taser weapon while in police custody, the Rhode Island ACLU sent a letter today calling on all police departments in the state currently using the controversial weapon to impose a moratorium on their use. R.I. ACLU executive director Steven Brown said that the death of a Rhode Islander after being stunned with the weapon was “inevitable in light of the continually-growing evidence that stun guns are not the non-lethal device that proponents purport it to be.”

The ACLU of Rhode Island has today filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of the community advocacy group ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), challenging an East Greenwich Town Council ordinance barring the group from engaging in political door-to-door canvassing between 7 and 9 PM, and requiring payment of a permit fee for the group’s canvassing activities. The lawsuit, filed by ACLU volunteer attorney Carolyn Mannis, argues that the restrictions violate ACORN’s First Amendment rights.

Citing the important free speech issues involved in the case, the ACLU of Rhode Island has today filed a response and counter-claim on behalf of Jonathan Daly-LaBelle, a South Kingstown resident who was sued for defamation by a political candidate, Andrew Bilodeau, a day before this month’s elections. Bilodeau’s suit alleged that Daly-LaBelle defamed him and violated state campaign finance laws by disseminating a political flier that was critical of Bilodeau’s campaign.