First Amendment

Know your rights when it comes to protests, marches and demonstrations.

More than a dozen organizations have joined in “friend of the court” briefs in support of the ACLU and ACLU of Rhode Island’s legal challenge to a certification requirement that the National Endowment for the Arts imposed last year on grant applicants.

Not only are these bills bad for students’ ability to find community online, but they also unnecessarily undermine the privacy and speech of all users, regardless of age.

A "friend of the court" brief in a public employee free speech case. While not taking a position on the outcome of the case, the brief requests that the appellate court hold that “mocking, derogatory, or disparaging” messages do not receive less First Amendment weight than other speech on matters of public concern, and to have the district court reexamine the case applying the correct standard.

This lawsuit was filed on behalf of five Native Americans at the Adult Correctional Institutions (ACI), and argues that Rhode Island Department of Corrections has refused to accommodate an array of religious practices that Native Americans are routinely allowed to practice in federal and state prisons across the country.

This case was filed by a broad coalition of local governments and nonprofit organizations across the country — including Rhode Island-based nonprofits Crossroads Rhode Island and Youth Pride, Inc. — seeking to stop the Trump-Vance administration from creating unlawful and unreasonable restrictions for funding for proven solutions to homelessness, threatening to push hundreds of thousands of families onto the street as cold winter months arrive.

This case was filed against Governor Daniel McKee on behalf of activists who were intentionally denied access to the State House for a rally and threatened with arrest prior to the annual gubernatorial State of the State address in January.