News & Commentary

Last year I blogged about two State-of-the-State addresses: one by Maine's Governor LePage and the other given by Governor Shumlin of Vermont. Both Maine and Vermont have seen a drastic rise in heroin use rates; while Governor LePage trotted out disproven and antiquated drug war rhetoric, Governor Shumlin garnered national attention for calling for a new progressive health-based approach to combating addiction and pledged state money to expanding treatment options. 

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.

What do the ACLU of Maine, the chief justice of Maine's Judicial Branch, and the LePage administration have in common? We all know it's time to reform Maine's pretrial system.

“We know that right now that the struggle freedom and justice is real; we live in the most incarcerated country in the world. There are more black men under correctional control today than under slavery in 1850.” And he is right. One look into our criminal justice system, and it is clear that the fight for racial justice and equality in America is far from over. While black people make up just 13 percent of the U.S. population, they account for almost half of the 2.23 million people incarcerated in this country. One in every three black men will see the inside of prison cell at some point during his life; at any given point, more than 40 percent of prisoners on death row are black.Due to collateral consequences, th

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.

A trial began yesterday for a lawsuit that challenges Alaska’s regulations that restrict abortions for low-income women. The lawsuit was filed by the ACLU, the Center for Reproductive Rights, Planned Parenthood Federation of America and Susan Orlansky, an Anchorage attorney, on behalf of Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest. It takes issue with a 2013 regulation that circumvents a 2001 decision by the Alaska Supreme Court ordering the state Medicaid program to cover all medically necessary abortions. 

Update (2/19/2015): Check out this great editorial from the Bangor Daily News on Maine's debtors' prisons. From the editorial:

Yesterday, I had my first public hearing of the session, fittingly on a First Amendment issue. And, because the bill creates a new crime, I found myself in front of the Criminal Justice committee - which may turn out to be my home away from home for the next few months. The bill, LD 43, was modeled after the federal Stolen Valor Act of 2013 and would create a new class E crime for false claims of military service.

On Monday, Rep. Joyce “Jay” McCreight, a new representative from Harpswell, introduced the bill LD 319: An Act to Strengthen the Economic Stability of Qualified Maine Citizens by Expanding Coverage of Reproductive Health Care and Family Services. The bill title is long, but the goal of the bill is simple. If passed, LD 319 will allow uninsured, under-insured, and low-income women to access important preventative health care services such as cancer screenings, annual exams, Pap tests, birth control, and STD testing. The bill would provide publicly funded preventative health care to adults who are at or below 209% of the federal poverty level, which translates into approximately $23,000/year for a household of one.