"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

First Amendment to the United States Constitution

The First Amendment has dominated ACLU of MAINE work in the courts, the classroom and in the legislature since our founding in 1968.  One of the ACLU of MAINE's first civil liberties matters included representation of a Lewiston police officer suspended for political speech.  Persistence paid off in the case of Dunham v. Superintendent of the Belfast Public Schools, in which a teacher was fired for introducing sexuality into a discussion of Romeo and Juliet with her students.  The case was first filed in federal court in late 1969, dismissed, appealed, sent back for trial and finally won.

A number of cases in the early 1970s involved student dress codes and "hairstyle" expression.  In 1975 the ACLU of MAINE represented a teacher who wished to sit quietly rather than salute the flag in the case of Ponco v. East Millinocket High School.

The ACLU's defense of the Nazis' right to march in Skokie, Illinois in 1977 did not damage ACLU of MAINE membership numbers, but it did spark controversy.  ACLU of MAINE Executive Director Jean Sampson defended the ACLU in an open letter to the Lewiston Daily Sun in 1978: "As detestable as the philosophy of the Nazis is, I believe it is far better to let them speak and march rather than throw out the First Amendment, which is essential to our democratic society."

In 1981 the ACLU of MAINE successfully represented a Baileyville High School student who protested the removal of 365 Days, a book about Vietnam, from the school library.  Other successes involving student free speech rights followed.  The ACLU of MAINE also won Klein v. Smith, involving the right of a student to give a teacher "the finger" when both were off school grounds.  Almost twenty years later, the ACLU of MAINE would defend the rights of a Calais student to publish controversial rap music lyrics on a website.

Censorship efforts in Maine have not been confined to the schools.  The ACLU of MAINE actively campaigned against numerous local and state ballot battles over obscenity ordinances.   In 1986 the ACLU of MAINE defeated a statewide referendum that would have made it a crime "to make, sell, give value or otherwise promote obscene material in Maine."

Political protest has been especially important since September 11. In the case of Sullivan v. Augusta, first brought on behalf of Iraq War protestors in 2004 and currently being appealed to the United States Supreme Court, the ACLU of MAINE continues to defend the rights of activists to march.

Privacy

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated..."
 
Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution

Privacy was not mentioned as an ACLU of MAINE concern in its first newsletter, but Watergate brought new attention to the Fourth Amendment.  During the 1970s, the ACLU of MAINE challenged numerous roadblocks set up by State Police to search concert- and fairgoers.  The ACLU of MAINE took its privacy fights to the legislature as well as the courts: in 1973 after years of lobbying, the ACLU of MAINE was successful in persuading the Maine State Legislature to repeal a law requiring all fifth graders to be fingerprinted.

In 1975 then part-time ACLU of MAINE Executive Director Bob Howe helped launch the New England ACLU Privacy Project for "coping with ever-increasing threats to the privacy of individual Americans."  Soon, the ACLU of MAINE represented by Cooperating Attorney Chuck Remmel successfully advocated for consumers who wished to access information in their own credit reports in the case of Hanscom v. Retail Credit Corp.

Other issues like the use and misuse of social security numbers loomed large in the 1970s too.  Unfortunately, the ACLU of MAINE lost its case, Caudle v. Secretary of State, to keep the social security number off the driver's license.

Ongoing statewide public education included the 1977 Privacy, Security and Freedom Project, a series of privacy conferences co-sponsored with the Maine Attorney General's Office.

The work of the ACLU of MAINE on issues of medical privacy heated up in the 1980s with advocacy to protect the privacy rights of people living with HIV and AIDS.  The ACLU of MAINE would continue to advocate through the 1980s and 1990s on these issues, hiring a Privacy Project Director Betsy Mahoney.

In June of 1988 the ACLU of MAINE Legal Panel voted to accept a case against the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife because of illegal search and seizures conducted against recreational canoeists on the Saco River.   The Bangor Daily News criticized the ACLU of MAINE for defending "the low life" in a July 1, 1988 editorial stating, "It is the rights of this wretched group that the civil liberties contingent, with its offended dignity and phobic apprehension of creeping authoritarianism, now rushes to serve."  Responded former ACLU of MAINE Board Member and Attorney John Ballou "I'm surprised you think that is a bad idea."  The ACLU of MAINE won the riverblocks case.

While canoeists were protected from unreasonable search and seizure, homeowners were not, in the helicopter fly-over cases of 1995, which the ACLU of MAINE lost.

The events following September 11, 2001 brought new threats to Mainers' privacy with increased government surveillance.   In 2005 the ACLU of MAINE investigated FBI surveillance of Maine peace and justice groups.  In 2006, we helped spark an investigation into National Security Agency surveillance of all Maine telephone customers.

Apprehension of creeping authoritarianism still remains.

Due Process

"No person shall...be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law." 

Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution

The ACLU of MAINE's first official legal action was to file an amicus brief supporting the right to counsel in the Nadeau Case. This due process success was the first of many.

A 1972 newsletter reports that the "ACLU of MAINE's prison cases are moving along in a most satisfying way." In Smith v. Robbins, argued before the First Circuit, the ACLU of MAINE, represented by Board member David Halperin, won court support for the right of prison inmates to communicate uncensored with attorneys and courts through the mail. Another important case, Langford v. Murphy, won the right for prisoners and the media to communicate.

The same 1972 newsletter lays out an audacious vision for the future including:

• Securing the right of inmates in Maine's correctional institutions to vote
• Establishing the right of inmates in the state's mental hospitals to be paid for the work they do
• "A thorough and systematic attack on bad judicial practices in the state"
• A complete revision of the civil commitment laws
• The creation of a model sentencing law.

Amazingly, the ACLU of MAINE was to be successful in many of these goals.  We are one of the few states in the country that allows prisoners to vote. In 1975 Maine adopted the Revised Criminal Code prepared by a legislative study committee whose membership included Louis Scolnik.  Among the changes, was removal of criminal penalties for possession of small amounts of marijuana and decriminalization of all penalties for sexual behavior between consenting adults, except the crimes of prostitution and incest.

In 1980 the ACLU of MAINE filed a class-action suit, Lovell v. Brennan, on behalf of inmates at the Maine State Prison. The suit was eventually dismissed, when the state was able to convince the judge that progress was being made, but in 1990 the ACLU of MAINE again filed suit over conditions at the Maine State Prison, eventually reaching a settlement with the state.

On February 27, 1989 a class-action suit on behalf of patients at the Augusta Mental Health Institute was filed in Maine Superior Court following years of ACLU of MAINE's investigation of conditions at AMHI.

The 1990s brought the "war on drugs."  The ACLU of MAINE fought civil forfeiture laws as well as increased drug trafficking penalties.  The 1990s also brought the first sex offender notification and registration proposal.  The ACLU of MAINE initiated a Prison Law Project in 1999.  Corrections reform work continues today.

In 2006 the ACLU of MAINE successfully lobbied the Maine Department of Corrections to open a secure mental health unit at the Maine State Prison.

Equal Protection

"Nor shall any State...deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." 

Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution

Women's rights dominated the ACLU of MAINE's equal protection agenda in the 1970s.  Among the earliest lawsuits were cases challenging the ability of women to keep their birth names following marriage.  ACLU of MAINE Member Howard Reben represented his wife Susan Hirsch in a successful bid before the Law Court for her to keep her name.  

A 1977 newsletter reports many past complaints from parents whose daughters were not permitted to join Portland's Little League. 

In 1977, the ACLU of MAINE initiated its own Women's Rights Project. The project, later named the Working Women's Rights Project, conducted public education across Maine and brought gender discrimination cases.  The ACLU of MAINE successfully advocated for Jacqueline Walton, who had been denied a position on the Rumford police force in 1980, and on behalf of naval officer Pamela Doviak Celli, who was denied participation in sea trials of a submarine in 1987. As late as 1992, the ACLU of MAINE defended the right of Nancy Ellis to join the Calumet Club, a Franco-American social club in Augusta.

The ACLU of MAINE advocated for the Equal Rights Amendment to the United States Constitution for many years, winning support from the legislature in 1975.

The ACLU of MAINE was instrumental in the various iterations of the Maine Choice Coalition, which successfully stopped a referendum on parental consent for abortion from coming forward, and defeated a 1999 referendum on the so-called "partial birth" abortion ban.

The ACLU of MAINE's work to defend numerous HIV-positive Mainers from discrimination began with the establishment of a task force on AIDS in 1987 and continued through the early 1990s.

Civil rights activists won a victory for LGBT rights when Maine Won't Discriminate defeated the anti-gay referendum of 1995.  It would take another decade to put protections for LGBT people into place.  In 1998, reeling from a people's veto of the state's new civil rights law, the ACLU of MAINE launched the Workplace Equity Project.  ACLU of MAINE Board President Bill Coogan wrote, "Since for now we could not have protection through a statewide law, we decided to plan a project to protect lesbian[s] and gay men from discrimination in the workplace."

In 1999 the ACLU of MAINE helped defeat an English-only bill and a bill that would have eliminated all affirmative action programs in the state.

Today the ACLU of MAINE is a leader in the Maine Immigrants' Rights Coalition, Maine Women's Leadership Coalition, the Maine Choice Coalition, and the Freedom to Marry Coalition.