News & Commentary

Yesterday, a U.S. Appeals Court dealt a blow to what we know as "net neutrality," striking down FCC rules that prevented broadband companies from giving preferential treatment to the content providers who can afford to pay the most for it.

In a fascinating Op-Ed to the New York Times, Yale Professors Jason Stanley and Vesla Weaver explore the impact of contact with the criminal justice system on political participation.

Last year our education program reached 41 different schools from all 16 counties. We did this through a combination of three student conferences in the fall and more than 20 classroom visits during the spring semester. This year we’re hoping to increase that number even more, and with most high schools a week away from midterms we’ve been busy getting ready to hit the road as soon as the spring semester begins.

Each Friday, we’ll bring you updates on the latest civil liberties news from Maine and the nation.

For a number of years, the ACLU has worked to raise awareness of the "school to prison pipeline"--a product of over-policing of public schools, zero-tolerance policies directed at young people, and harsh punishments. The cumulative effect of these policies is a situation where many students--particularly in poorer areas of the country--travelled a seamless path from high school to the criminal justice system. Four years ago, the ACLU published a report on the problems created by the largely unregulated, unsupervised work of school resource officers. The report set out a number of suggestions designed to guide the work of these police officers who are stationed at schools and who take part in school discipline. Fighting against the "school to prison pipeline" has been one of the highest priorities of the ACLU, both at the national level and in the affiliates. Students have rights, and we all have an interest is keeping young people out of the criminal justice system.

Consider for a moment how much you share about yourself over email, Facebook, Twitter, private blogs and the like. Many of us use these platforms to communicate far more than phones and snail-mail. Now imagine you are applying for a job, and your potential employer tells you that during application process they will be listening in on all your phone calls, reading your emails, and poking around your Facebook account - so please turn over your passwords. Only one of those things is illegal.

Freedom of religion is a fundamental right, one the ACLU will always fight for. It is protected by the constitutions of Maine and the United States. The Maine Human Rights Act explicitly protects people against discrimination based on their religion. And there are 13 individual statutes in Maine law that protect religious freedom. 

Exciting news out of New York as Governor Andrew Cuomo plans this week to announce an executive action that will create a limited medical marijuana program. Nineteen of the fifty states now have medical marijuana laws on the books with nearly one- million patients nation-wide able to legally utilize marijuana to alleviate their medical symptoms.

Though he narrowly finished behind Pope Francis as a runner-up for Time’s 2013 Person of the Year, Edward Snowden no doubt had a significant impact on the world last year. The reverberations from his revelations on government spying are still being felt, and if we do indeed see progress on privacy issues in the year ahead there is no doubt that Snowden should share a considerable amount of the credit.