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The ACLU of Rhode Island today filed a federal lawsuit to challenge the constitutionality of a 110-year-old statute that declares inmates serving life sentences at the ACI to be “dead in all respects” with respect to “all civil rights.” The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court by ACLU cooperating attorneys Sonja Deyoe and Lynette Labinger, is on behalf of two ACI inmates who are barred from pursuing legal actions against the Department of Corrections in court because of the “civil death” law. According to the lawsuit, Rhode Island may be the only state in the country still enforcing a law like this, whose origins date back to ancient English common law.

The ACLU of Rhode Island today commended six current and former elected state officials who have signed onto court briefs this month to urge the U.S. Supreme Court not to roll back civil rights protections for LGBTQ people when it hears a trio of discrimination cases this fall. All of the cases  involve people who were fired for being LGBTQ.

The American Civil Liberties Union Immigrants’ Rights Project and the ACLU of Rhode Island have today filed a “friend of the court” brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals in Boston in support of a lower court ruling barring the extradition of a man whom the U.S. State Department is trying to return to the Dominican Republic (DR) even though an immigration appeals board found he would likely be tortured if returned there.

The ACLU of Rhode Island has sharply criticized Providence Police Chief Hugh Clements, Jr. for minimizing a court’s recent conclusion that police blatantly violated the constitutional rights of a criminal defendant. Even though the Court expressed “grave disapproval” over the police conduct in the case – knowingly continuing to interrogate a suspect after she had exercised her right to request to speak with a lawyer – Chief Clements was quoted last week as calling the constitutional violations “technical” and went on to praise the police who worked on the case.

In a case raising important First Amendment issues for the Internet age, the ACLU of Rhode Island has taken on the defense of a Massachusetts blogger who was ordered by a Rhode Island Superior Court judge to “immediately remove” from his website “any and all posts, blogs, and comments” regarding a person who sued him for libel, without even hearing from the internet publisher.  Considering the court order a classic example of censorship, ACLU of Rhode Island cooperating attorney Lynette Labinger has removed the case to federal court for adjudication.