News & Commentary

At the center of Gov. LePage's law enforcement-heavy plan to combat Maine's growing drug addiction problem: a shadowy government agency known as a "fusion center." Never heard of it? That's no surprise.

I heard a lot of talk about "wasting the taxpayer's dollars" this session, mostly in the context of "welfare fraud" and the need to reserve benefits for "our people," i.e. U.S. citizens. No one repeated this refrain more than the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), an agency whose enabling statute includes the following guiding principles:

As I wrote in an op-ed in the Press Herald on Sunday, the Constitution makes it clear that the bills – now totaling 71 – languishing on Governor LePage’s desk are now law. That includes six new laws we worked hard to pass that protect civil liberties in Maine. Here’s a look at them:

On the most recent edition of “Last Week Tonight,” John Oliver explored the depths of the government’s surveillance capabilities with his typical brand of satire. In an unexpected twist, Oliver actually traveled to Russia for a face-to-face interview with Edward Snowden, the whistleblower who revealed many of the programs that now inform our larger understanding of how expansively the National Security Agency operates.

A good rule of thumb when it comes to privacy and government surveillance is to always assume that the truth is a few notches scarier than whatever you previously assumed. Case in point: the ACLU recently obtained records from law enforcement agencies in Florida about their acquisition and use of sophisticated cell phone location tracking devices known as “Stingrays,” which can simulate a cell tower and trick your cellphone into handing over all of its identifying information without you ever knowing.

The Academy Awards and civil liberties don’t always go hand in hand, but at last night’s ceremony there were a few surprising moments of synergy between Hollywood and the issues we deal with every day at the ACLU.

According to a newly disclosed email, obtained by the ACLU through the Freedom of Information Act, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives collaborated on plans to monitor gun show attendees using automatic license plate readers.

According to documents recently obtained by the ACLU, the Drug Enforcement Administration has initiated a new program linking its National License Plate Recognition initiative with those of law enforcement agencies across the country. According to ACLU Senior Policy Analyst, Jay Stanley, this new program raises major civil liberties concerns, as it would allow the federal government to collect and store huge amounts of data tracking the movements of motorists across the country.

Five years ago, Nick George was going through security at Philadelphia International Airport when he was suddenly asked to step aside for additional screening. What followed was an unbelievable ordeal that ended with him being aggressively interrogated, marched through the airport in handcuffs, and locked in a jail cell for nearly five hours – all because he was carrying a set of English-Arabic flashcards for his college language class along with a book critical of U.S. foreign policy.