News & Commentary

Maine's Supreme Judicial Court took notice of the "numerous" comments on the proposed change to the 48-hour first appearance rule and has decided NOT to adopt the amendment. Opponents, includ

On Tuesday several of the ACLU of MAINE staff and some volunteers traveled to Belfast, Maine for the first of our annual student Bill of Rights Conferences.  Over 100 high school students from Hampden Academy, John Bapst Academy and Rockland High School joined us in Belfast to learn about students’ First, Fourth and Fourteen Amendment rights.

Back in US History, did you ever hear the Andrew Jackson quote, “John Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it!” Whether or not the quote was actually stated is often disputed by scholars, but the quote is derived from Jackson’s reaction to the 1832 Supreme Court case

On September 30th, I blogged about Tasers and their use, abuse, and relation to deaths across America and elsewhere. 

Yesterday, the Maine Legislature's Judiciary Committee held a daylong hearing on a new Maine law with potentially terrible consequences for the free flow of information in Maine. The ACLU of MAINE's Public Policy Counsel, Alysia Melnick, joined experts from across the country to testify about all the different problems with the law. As Alysia explained, the law impinges on the First Amendment rights of three different classes of people: young adults, who have the right to seek out information important to them, whether to protect their own health and safety or because of a hobby; adults, who have nearly absolute rights to seek out information on the Internet; and businesses and individuals who create content  on the internet, who have the right to share all kinds of information without undue government interference. Maine Attorney General Janet Mills suggested that, in current form, the law is almost legally and constitutionally indefensible.  Today, the committee will discuss whether to amend the law or to take our advice and completely scrap it.

Yesterday, the Legislative Council of the Maine State Legislature met to review and vote on the 374 bill requests submitted by members of the House and the Senate for consideration in the second regular session of the 124th Legislature.

Last night I facilitated a panel before the Portland School Committee of current and former students of Portland and Deering High Schools on race and education.  This was the second panel in a series that is part of a collaborative effort between the ACLU of MAINE and the NAACP.  We have asked the School Committee to explore how race impacts education.  Four inspiring young people  --  Jean Paul Kamanzi, Joseph Perez, Kelsey Phillips, and Alfred Jacobs --  shared their personal reflections on how race impacts education.  The Press Herald covered the event:

Tomorrow night, Bishop Gene Robinson from the Episcopal Diocese in New Hampshire, will be giving a talk on “Why

Next week, the Maine Legislature's Judiciary Committee is going to hold two days of hearings on a new Maine law with potentially disastrous consequences for the free flow of information.  The law, which was intended only to protect children from predatory marketing, goes far further, and it could potentially mean the end of Facebook and other social networking sites in Maine.  The bill also has the potential to restrict the ability of teenagers to seek out information about their own health and development, such as exercise advice or tips about healthy diets, or more serious information about protection from domestic violence or drug addiction.  I saw "potential," because currently the law has been enjoined by the Federal Court, which expressed serious doubt regarding the constitutionality of the law.  The hearings will be streamed over the internet, so anyone can listen, and the Judiciary Committee has developed a website to host public comments.  The ACLU of MAINE has submitted comments to the Committee, and will be testifying next week, urging the Committee to repeal this law and go back to the drawing board.