Judge Sides With McKee, After ACLU Sues Over Eviction of Tent Encampment From State House
Friday, December 16, 2022
The Rhode Island Superior Court on Friday sided with Governor Dan McKee’s recent order that a tent encampment at the State House can be removed.
On December 7, McKee had ordered the encampment — which was erected in protest of the state’s homelessness response — be disbanded within 48 hours.
This past Tuesday, the ACLU sued the state, and on Friday, the Superior Court ruled in favor of McKee.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTSuperior Court Judge David Cruise in his decision said that the plaintiffs had failed to demonstrate that the removal of the occupants of the tent encampment at the State House was a violation of their civil rights.
“From the start, our team has been focused on connecting unhoused Rhode Islanders with safe, warm shelter. Over the last several weeks, members of our Administration worked diligently to offer shelter options to all who were encamped at the State House. Thanks to their efforts, the majority of individuals accepted the offer of shelter and transportation to that shelter,” said McKee’s Communications Director Andrea Palagi on Friday.
“We were able to outline those extensive outreach efforts to the court and today’s ruling acknowledges the effectiveness of that work. The ruling also upheld the validity of the reasonable time, place and manner restrictions that the Department of Administration has in place for use of the State House grounds,” the Governor’s office added. “We thank those local partners who worked with us to help get people into shelter urgently – that has always been our primary goal.”
The ACLU released the following:
"We are extremely disappointed in the court’s decision. We believe it fails to acknowledge the arbitrary and discriminatory way the state’s policies on overnight protest have been implemented, and makes light of an important state law designed to ensure public input, transparency and oversight over state policy making.
The plaintiffs have stayed at the State House in freezing weather to make an important point, and it is very unfortunate that the end result is that they now face arrest for doing so.
Eliminating this protest may prevent some people from having to directly confront a visible example of the state’s housing crisis, but it only hides the problem and denies the exercise of a fundamental freedom.
The protest has nonetheless had a salutary effect in that over the last several days, efforts have been successful in finding adequate housing for most of the protesters. It is telling that it took a months’ long protest to get us to this point.
Over the next few days, we will talk with the clients to consider next steps."
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