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The ACLU of Rhode Island today announced the favorable settlement of a federal lawsuit it filed last year on behalf of the environmental group Clean Water Action (CWA), challenging a Johnston Town Council directive barring the group from engaging in political door-to-door canvassing between 7 and 9 PM. The lawsuit, filed by ACLU volunteer attorney Carolyn Mannis, successfully argued that the restriction violated the group’s First Amendment rights.

The ACLU of Rhode Island has filed a lawsuit against the state Division of Motor Vehicles, charging the agency with a complete failure to comply with an important state law designed to ensure open and responsive government. That law is the Administrative Procedures Act (APA), which requires state agencies to provide advance public notice and seek public comment before they adopt rules and regulations governing their activities.

The Rhode Island ACLU today filed a federal lawsuit challenging on free speech grounds state laws and regulations that allow billboard signs on buildings near highways only if the sign promotes an activity taking place on the property. The suit is on behalf of Anthony Joseph Vono and his business, Specialty Promotions, which have been cited by the state Department of Transportation for having a billboard sign that advertises “off premises activity.”

The ACLU has called on Governor Carcieri to reject a proposal that he ask the R.I. Supreme Court to revisit the question of drunk driving roadblocks, which in 1989 the court found to be a violation of the state constitution’s prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures. In a recent letter, Attorney General Patrick Lynch asked the Governor to seek a Supreme Court advisory opinion revisiting the issue.

As the state begins preparations for a possible flu pandemic, the RI ACLU today cautioned that Rhode Islanders face another serious consequence should an outbreak occur: the government’s potential use of extraordinary powers that could significantly diminish residents’ freedom, privacy and equality. That is because the state’s emergency health power laws, according to RI ACLU executive director Steven Brown, are “incredibly far-reaching and authorize some of the most sweeping powers in the country to deal with a health care emergency.”