NARRAGANSETT — An attempt by the town to crack down on partying college students has moved from weekend party spots to Superior Court, where the American Civil Liberties Union is suing the town on behalf of the University of Rhode Island Student Senate.

In a lawsuit filed yesterday, the Rhode Island Affiliate of the ACLU says the town has violated the rights of students and landlords by enforcing an ordinance that puts bright orange stickers on houses where “unruly gatherings” have taken place, without giving students and landlords a chance to appeal.

The lawsuit says the ordinance, adopted last September, also fails to define offending behaviors and targets people at parties or gatherings even if they have done nothing wrong.

“This law doesn’t focus on somebody who breaks the law,” said H. Jefferson Melish, a South Kingstown lawyer and ACLU board member who filed the lawsuit on behalf of the Student Senate and several students and landlords. “It focuses on a class of people who are students, who the town is trying to control. It’s a draconian effort to deal with a few bad people who make noise.”

The lawsuit asks the court to stop the town from enforcing the ordinance and it seeks unspecified compensatory damages and reimbursement for legal costs.

Town Manager Jeffry Ceasrine and Town Solicitor Mark A. McSally did not return calls yesterday, but Town Council President T. Brian Handrigan defended the ordinance, saying, “It’s worked. That’s why they’re upset and going to the ACLU.”

He summed up the students’ argument as: “Why shouldn’t I be able to have a party and get drunk? You stop me from doing that and I’ll go to the ACLU.”

The tension between Narragansett’s year-round residents and student renters has existed for years. Longtime residents say things got worse in 1995, when URI banned the sale of alcohol on its Kingston campus, sending more partying Narragansett’s way. One of the most high-profile incidents occurred in 2006, when three URI students got into a rowboat and headed out onto Narragansett Bay, where they drowned. Witnesses told the police the students had been drinking, though the police said it was unclear what role alcohol might have played.

The council adopted a nuisance ordinance in 2005. A revised version, adopted last September, posts the orange stickers for an entire school year, through May 31, or the entire summer season, through Aug. 31, if the police deem a house to be a public nuisance. The ordinance also imposes fines of up to $500 for repeat offenses and calls for mandatory community service.

Year-round residents have applauded the changes, saying their neighborhoods have been quieter.

But the lawsuit argues that the policy attempts to “humiliate and shame” students by posting the stickers — sometimes referred to as scarlet letters — outside their houses for the rest of the school year. It also says the policy has made it difficult for landlords to rent properties where a sticker has been posted.

Thomas R. Ahrens, president of the URI Student Senate, said “there needs to be some kind of policy” but not one that targets students with embarrassing stickers that are issued at the discretion of the police. He questioned the need to post the stickers for the entire school year when there were only 12 repeat offenders during 2006-2007, when the stickers were posted for 60 days.

“We’re not looking for our right to party all night, we’re just looking to be treated fairly,” he said.

Carol Stuart, a member of the Narragansett/URI Coalition, a body of community leaders, URI administrators and students that started meeting in 2000 to address student drinking and partying, said she was disappointed to hear about the lawsuit.

“It’s going to cost the town money,” she said. “How successful it’s going to be I don’t know.”

redgar@projo.com