2026 Legislative Priorities

The 132nd Legislature adjourned on April 29, 2026. We were in Augusta every week, working with lawmakers and partner organizations to protect and defend the civil rights and liberties of all people in Maine.

This page has some of our top priorities and where they landed. Most new laws will take effect on July 29, 2026.

Private companies routinely collect massive amounts of data about people’s everyday activities. That data is then sold to anyone willing to pay, including the government. For instance, in January 2026, the ACLU published documents obtained from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) showing the agency circumvented the Fourth Amendment. DHS purchased highly sensitive location data harvested from cell phones that enabled the government to track people’s movements over time – all without a warrant.

The ACLU of Maine is championing legislation in Augusta to protect all of Maine's people from these intrusions into their private lives.

We championed several new laws that will strengthen immigrants' rights and due process for all people in Maine in the face of increasing federal abuses of power.

The ACLU of Maine seeks to end excessively harsh criminal law policies that disproportionately affect poor people and people of color and stand in the way of a just and equal society.

The Wabanaki were the first on this land now called Maine, and Wabanaki citizens deserve the right to self-determination on this land they never ceded. However, the Wabanaki Nations are denied many of the federal benefits granted to every single other federally recognized tribe in the United States under the Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act of 1980. Tribal governments have proven for decades that when granted these federal benefits, they serve all communities, as proven in a 2022 analysis by the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development. When the Wabanaki prosper, all communities prosper.