NEW: ACLU Files Suit Against RI Department of Public Safety
Tuesday, September 06, 2011
The Rhode Island American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has filed a suit against the state’s Department of Public Safety (DPS), arguing that the agency failed to provide the public an appropriate opportunity to comment on controversial regulations establishing its policies for public access to DPS records.
The suit, filed in R.I. Superior Court by RI ACLU volunteer attorney Jennifer Azevedo, argues that the DPS violated a state law known as the Administrative Procedures Act (APA), which is designed to ensure that state executive agencies go through a public rule-making process in adopting policies governing their conduct.
The lawsuit argues that the DPS violated the state’s Access to Public Records Act on several occasions. The ACLU seeks a court order declaring the regulations at issue null and void, and ordering the agency to hold a new hearing on the rules that complies with the APA’s notice provisions.
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RI ACLU executive director Steven Brown said “The importance of the APA cannot be underestimated. It ensures that the public has an opportunity for input into the rulemaking activities of state agencies. In adopting this law over forty years ago, the General Assembly appropriately recognized that many critical activities of state government are conducted through agencies of the executive branch, and that citizens deserve the ability to have a meaningful opportunity to comment on their policies and procedures. The bait-and-switch approach used by DPS completely undermines the whole point of requiring advance public notice of rule-making activities, and should not be allowed to stand.”
