Rhode Island District Court Reluctantly Dismisses Suit Seeking to Establish Federal Constitutional Right to a Civic Education
Plaintiffs will appeal, saying the decision gives them a road map to the First Circuit PRESS RELEASE – OCTOBER 13, 2020 New York, NY — Judge William Smith of the U.S. District Court for Rhode Island today issued his long-awaited decision in Cook v. Raimondo. The case was filed in November 2018 by a group…
Read MoreRhode Island Urgently Needs a Justice Budget
The Rhode Island Center for Justice supports the 2020 Justice Budget platform, which calls for equitable budgeting, fair taxes, and improved social safety nets in a balanced economy. We call on legislators and state leaders to pass the provisions in the Justice Budget and make Rhode Island a state of shared prosperity for all. Economic…
Read MoreLandlord/Tenant Disputes: Tenants Deserve Fair News Coverage
The Providence Journal recently published a salacious story of a tenant-landlord dispute, where the landlord of a luxury apartment was unable to remove a tenant when her lease expired. The piece depicted the tenant as a charlatan lawyer who decided to overstay her lease. However, this article does not reflect the reality of most tenant-landlord…
Read MoreNational Grid customers: Enroll now in discount rates and protection from utility termination
All National Grid residential customers are protected from utility shutoff due to the pandemic, but this protection will expire at the end of September unless you are enrolled in low-income discount rates. If you are enrolled in discount rates, you are protected from shutoff until April 2021. You may be newly eligible for this rate…
Read More[ARCHIVE] Eviction moratorium / Prohibición temporal de desalojos
The information in this post is now out-of-date. The eviction moratorium ended in August 2021. Está en riesgo de ser desalojado por falta de pagar la renta? Vea el Formulario de Notificación y Declaración de Moratoria de Desalojo y solicite ayuda para pagar la renta aquí. On September 5, 2020 the Centers for Disease Control…
Read MoreThe Center for Justice Thanks BCBSRI for its Support
The Rhode Island Center for Justice is grateful for a 2020 BlueAngel Community Health Grant from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Rhode Island (BCBSRI) to prevent homelessness and the serious negative health impacts of housing insecurity for Rhode Islanders. The BlueAngel Grant supports our work to help Rhode Islanders remain stably housed and keep prevent…
Read MoreWorkers’ Rights During COVID-19 / Derechos de los Trabajadores Durante Covid-19
Anuncio traducido abajo. English / Inglés The Latino Policy Institute, AMOR (Alliance to Mobilize Our Resistance), Fuerza Laboral, and the Economic Progress Institute have released resource guides in Spanish and English on rights of workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, including worker safety, sick leave, and unemployment. These documents, embedded below, include: https://tinyurl.com/BackToWorkRI-ENG: An English two-page…
Read MoreRIPUC Extends Moratorium on Utility Shutoffs
At their July 13th meeting, the Rhode Island Public Utilities Commission (PUC) voted to extend the state’s moratorium on utility shutoffs by National Grid through November 1st, 2020 for low-income utility customers and through September 30th, 2020 for all other residential utility customers. Citing a number of the arguments articulated in the Public Comment submitted…
Read MoreStatement of the R.I. Center for Justice on Police Killing of Black People: We Must Say Their Names
Since the year 2000, nearly 5,000 identified Black men, women and children have been killed in fatal encounters with police across the United States. A Washington Post investigation found that the FBI undercounts fatal police shootings by more than half because reporting by police departments is voluntary. Until recently there was no comprehensive national database…
Read MoreCOVID-19 and Tenant Legal Support — Update as of June 1, 2020
New District Court Eviction Protocol On March 22, 2020 the Rhode Island District Court issued Administrative Order 2020-03 regarding District Court Eviction Protocol. The order sets out a phased re-opening of the District Court, with a plan to re-schedule hearings for cases that have already been filed, and new guidelines for cases filed on or after June…
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