Every year, the ACLU of RI lobbies on hundreds of bills during Rhode Island's annual Legislative Session. Below are some of the bills we have tracked and testified on before the General Assembly. For more info on advocating for the issues you care about, check out our Advocacy 101 Guide. To see how your Reps and Senators voted on various bills over the past few years, visit our Legislative Scorecards page.
We opposed a number of bills seeking to increase the penalties for a variety of driving offenses, noting that the approach of sending people to prison for longer periods of time and imposing steeper fines...
We strongly supported this bill which would not require proof of lawful presence in the United States to obtain a professional or occupational license.
Though we were very sensitive to the intentions behind this bill, which would have established a voluntary program by which individuals with autism could receive a specially marked driver’s license and a...
We strongly supported legislation which would have required that juveniles sentenced to long prison sentences as adults be reviewed by the parole board no later than fifteen years into their sentence.
Because there is no question that rehabilitation is substantially enhanced by making contact easier between incarcerated individuals and their loved ones, we strongly supported this bill which would have...
Though we appreciated its laudable goal, we opposed legislation which would require the state Department of Education to offer a kosher meal school lunch option to school districts.