News & Commentary

I'm finishing up at the State House on this - the first day of this emergency legislative session and everyone seems revved up and ready to jump into the fray.  On everyone's minds here today was the budget.  It's no news that legislators have some dismal budgetary decisions to make and minimal resources at their disposal with which to address the new and ongoing needs of Mainers. 

Over the past few weeks we’ve had several blogs about our nation’s balance between freedom and national security. Yesterday Edward blogged about the Obama Administration’s plan to subject citizens – all citizens – of 14 nations to full body pat downs and electronic strip searches. This is a direct call for racial profiling.

It's distressing how easily the government can manipulate the population after even a failed terrorist attack.  As I mentioned in an earlier blogpost, the response to the recent attempted bombing of a flight arriving in Detroit is tighter restrictions on airtravel. 

The word terrific can mean "very good or fine" or "causing terror; terrifying."  The ACLU's new game leading us through the school to prison pipeline is terrific in all senses of the word. 

In response to last week’s attempted attack on a plane heading from Amsterdam to Detroit, Michigan, the New York Times is pointing out the inadequacies of our nation’s security system. “But as this case makes chillingly clear, the airport security systems put in place after the Sept. 11th attacks– complicated, expensive, and hugely onerous for travelers – have serious flaws.”

By now, everyone knows about last week's attemped bombing aboard a flight to Detroit that originated in Nigeria. 

We defend the rights of everyone, even our opponents. At a staff retreat this summer, we all discussed why we work for the ACLU and which issues are most important to us.

Precursing current attempts to reform use of solitary confinement of Maine prisoners, in the from 2006 to 2007, the ACLU of MAINE worked with mental health community, prison reform advocates and the administration at the Maine State Prison to create concrete, reliable regulations for the operation of the MSP's Secure Mental Health Unit.