Updated May 7. The following are public hearings and work sessions on bills of note for the week of May 6:

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Today I testified against three bills that would severely, and unconstitutionally, restrict welfare benefits for some of Maine's most vulnerable families.

Two of the bills seek to limit the number of people who can receive state aid by creating unconstitutional residency requirements and automatically terminating benefits for anyone convicted of a drug crime. The third bill would allow random, suspicionless drug testing of public benefit recipients in violation of the Fourth Amendment.
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It was a glorious Wednesday to be in Portland, and not just because of the sunny skies. With hundreds of Mainers taking to the streets to march in support of comprehensive immigration reform, this year’s March and Rally for Immigration Reform couldn’t have gone any better.
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It's not every day that the ACLU of Maine contributes to saving lives, but today we did.  We supported LD 1046, a bill that would allow for the administration of naloxone in cases of opiate overdose.  The testimony at the public hearing was poignant.  Kenneth Miller of the Maine Harm Reduction Alliance testified that drug overdose deaths in Maine more than doubled from 60 in 2000 to 167 in 2010.  Naloxone helps to prevent the overdose long enough for emergency treatment to be secured.  The constitutional support for this bill is rooted in a philosophy of treating d | continue reading

Today, I spent an emotional afternoon in our Health and Human Services Committee room up in Augusta. Our legislators were listening patiently to several people who were testifying on LD 1065, "An Act Regarding Patient-directed Care at the End of Life". 
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Each Friday, we’ll bring you updates on the latest civil liberties news from Maine and the nation.

Guantanamo | continue reading

I started writing this blog post yesterday afternoon, while sitting in the Judiciary Committee hearing room at the Maine State Legislature. I was waiting for the third committee work session on our proposed restrictions on the use of surveillance drones, and I had a plan: any time that I am sitting in a committee hearing waiting for my bill, and I take out my laptop to do work, then my bill comes up almost as soon as my laptop turns on. Sure enough. . . 
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Women balancing work and family know that gender discrimination is more subtle than it was just decades ago.  Women are unlikely to be told by a prospective employer "we don't hire women," like Sandra Day O'Connor was when more than forty law firms would not give her an interview following her 1950 graduation from Stanford Law School.  However, women who seek accommodations from an employer for pregnancy or breastfeeding are often denied or chall | continue reading