News & Commentary

A relatively unique aspect of the legislative process here in Maine is that every bill gets a public hearing. Which means anyone can testify on a bill in Augusta. No exceptions. All that's required is a little bit of prep work on your end.

This piece first appeared on MaineBeacon.com

It’s been a very big year. Here is just some of what we’ve accomplished together:

This update was first published by the National ACLU at aclu.org

On Tuesday, the Federal Commission on School Safety issued recommendations that it claims will help makes schools safer following the mass shooting in Parkland, Florida. But at the center of the report is a proposal that will endanger millions of public school students, especially students of color and students with disabilities, by reversing federal guidance intended to address racial disparities in school discipline. Doing away with the guidance will weaken federal civil rights protections at a time when the Government Accountability Office reports that Black K-12 students receive punishments that are overly severe and frequent in schools across the country.

The Trump administration’s campaign to dismantle our asylum system just suffered another major setback.

Donald Trump’s nomination of William Barr to succeed Jeff Sessions as attorney general ought to raise alarm bells across the country. Barr is as bad as Sessions was on the full range of civil rights issues that fall with the Justice Department’s purview. And he’s a longstanding advocate of expansive executive power. 

Maine has made significant strides in removing racist Indigenous mascots from its schools. All of the Maine schools with Native mascots – except one – have changed to more culturally and racially sensitive alternatives.

Civil forfeiture is a process through which the police seize – and then keep or sell – any property they allege is involved in a crime.Let’s break that down.