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A number of bills with civil liberties implications did not make it out of the General Assembly this session.

The Rhode Island ACLU is asking a R.I. Superior Court judge to enjoin certification of the results of a “preliminary election” being held today to winnow down the list of candidates to appear on the November ballot for non-partisan at-large school committee seats in Lincoln. In a lawsuit filed yesterday on behalf of town residents John Cullen and Edward Slattery, ACLU volunteer attorney Annie Goldberg argues that the Town had no authority to hold such an election, and that all the qualified candidates should be eligible for the November ballot.

The ACLU said today it will ask state legislators to amend the open records law to require police departments to release arrest reports within 48 hours of a request for the information. The call follows the death of South Kingstown resident Bruce Chappell on Tuesday after being arrested by North Kingstown police. Police officials have refused to release copies of the report of his arrest, citing a provision in the open records law giving public agencies up to ten days to respond to requests for public information.

The ACLU of Rhode Island has called on local hospitals to reject anticipated earmarked federal funding for immigrant health care that could have a serious and negative health impact on undocumented immigrants in the state.

In response to the recently-publicized “discrimination” complaint filed against Rhode Island College Professor Lisa Church, the ACLU has called on RIC President John Nazarian to immediately address the “broader issues and concerns that her case has raised” by revising the college’s policies that prohibit “hate speech.” Professor Church had an administrative hearing last week on charges that she violated a college provision requiring personnel to “create, promote and ensure a positive climate where individuals may learn, teach and work free from discrimination.” The charge arose when she refused to intervene in a private dispute in which racist comments were allegedly made by one parent of a child to another at the college’s Cooperative Preschool, which Church helps to coordinate.