Search

In a petition filed today in the state Supreme Court, RI ACLU volunteer attorney Armando Batastini has asked the Court to order the state Board of Elections to conduct a manual recount of all precinct, mail and provisional ballots cast in the Representative District 58 Democratic Primary. The petition is on behalf of candidate Carlos Tobon, whose purported one-vote loss to incumbent William San Bento has been mired in controversy and confusion since election night. The ACLU’s petition also asks for an audit of all mail and provisional ballots in that election to determine the qualification of each voter submitting those ballots.

The RI ACLU has sharply blasted a plan announced today by Providence Mayor David Cicilline to “institute random drug testing in the Police Department effective immediately.” The ACLU said the proposal was “clearly illegal” and called it “sadly ironic” for the Department, “in the name of rooting out illegal activity by officers,” to propose a policy that, if implemented, would itself be a crime.

The Rhode Island ACLU has filed an administrative complaint against the North Smithfield School Committee for its adoption earlier this year of a “pay to play” policy, charging an “athletic management fee” of $150 for students wishing to participate in interscholastic sports. The complaint, filed before the R.I. Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DOE) by RI ACLU volunteer attorney Merlyn O’Keefe, argues that the policy violates state law and is in direct conflict with a number of opinions issued by the DOE on this issue over the years.

The Rhode Island ACLU has today filed an appeal with the Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education to contest the planned implementation of a mandatory school uniform policy in Woonsocket public schools. The complaint, filed by RI ACLU volunteer attorney John W. Dineen, is on behalf of four parents – Monique Richard, Lisa Desplaines, Angela Lemoine and Tiffany Johnson – and their children. Although the policy is effective September 1st, the ACLU has been advised by school officials that it will not be enforced for thirty days.

The ACLU commends Governor Lincoln Chafee’s signing into law a bill restricting the shackling of pregnant prisoners.  The law generally bars the restraint of pregnant incarcerated women by handcuffs, shackles, and waist restraints during transport, labor, delivery, and recovery, and allows only “medically appropriate” restraints to be used during the second and third trimester of an inmate’s pregnancy. This legislation, which does permit corrections’ officials to use the least restrictive restraints necessary for individuals perceived as a security risk, will protect women and their children from any unnecessary harm during and after childbirth.