The ACLU of Rhode Island filed the federal lawsuit to prevent the Smithfield Police Department from continuing to enforce a broadly written state law that makes it a crime to circulate anonymous political literature, including unsigned newspaper editorials. The statute, which carries a potential one-year prison sentence, bars the distribution of any anonymous political literature that relates to ballot questions or that criticizes a political candidate’s “personal character or political action.” Case Update: October 2014, U.S. District Court Judge William Smith struck down the state law that makes it a crime to circulate anonymous political literature, including unsigned newspaper editorials.
