News & Commentary

Freedom from imprisonment “lies at the heart” of the liberty protected by the Due Process Clause of the Constitution.

Remember abstinence-only-until-marriage funding? You may not remember, since President Obama chose not to provide Title V money, the funds for abstinence-only-until-marriage programs, in his first budget. Advocates for comprehensive sexuality education were thrilled with Obama’s move to fund “evidence-based” teen pregnancy prevention programs.

On Friday, The New York Times examined the additional costs that same-sex couples accrue as a result of being denied the right to marry.  The numbers are staggering.  Read the full article here. 

“Tuesday’s announcement includes statements of “core principles” so fundamental that you have to wonder what they are replacing,” write the editors of the New York Times in today’s editorial column.

Have you ever jokingly said during a phone conversation or in an email or text that you hope the government isn’t listening in?

That is what my colleague, Jamil Dakwar, told the Human Dimension Implementation Meeting in Warsaw, Poland this week.  Jamil is the director of the ACLU Human Rights Program, and part of his job is to help the ACLU pay attention to the rights and liberties guaranteed by treaty, as well as the more conventional sources of constitutions and statutes.  Here in Maine, we know full well how critical religious freedom is, and how perilous.  ACLU of MAINE Board President Chris Branson discussed some of our work to protect religious minorities in an op-ed in the Portland Press Herald this week.  Next week, Peter Eliasberg of the ACLU of Southern California will argue a major Establishment Clause case at the opening week of the new U.S. Supreme Court term.  The challenges raised by these cases are not easy, but they are a central part of who we are as a nation.

I was first hired by the ACLU to work on Patriot Act reforms back in 2003.  The energy behind reform (or repeal) was amazing.  Conservatives and liberals, gun owners and librarians, faith groups and civil rights leaders

ACLU of MAINE Board President Christopher Branson had an Op-Ed published in the Portland Press Herald today. He discusses religious liberty and tolerance in Portland, referencing two cases that ACLU of MAINE Legal Director Zach Heiden worked.