News & Commentary

Our legal director, Zach Heiden, was in Augusta today to respond to proposed rules from the Department of Corrections that would ban several First Amendment-protected activities, such as writing to a pen pal. We are urging the Department to withdraw the proposed rules, or to substantially modify them before putting them into effect.

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:

The October 2014 Supreme Court term has officially ended, and what a way to end. There is a term in bridge for when a player runs the table, whether they have the best cards or not; it is called a "finesse." That is what it was like watching the decisions come down in the last days of the term: a total finesse game, with civil liberties coming out the winner.

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 Sunday, the Portland Press Herald published this story on the number of people incarcerated for failing to pay a criminal fine in Maine and the enormous cost to taxpayers. According to research by the ACLU of Maine, every year thousands of Mainers are booked into county jails for no other reason than failing to pay a criminal fine. In some counties, almost 20 percent of total jail bookings were just for unpaid fines.

A couple weeks ago, MPBN aired this sad story: for the third year in a row the number of drug related deaths in Maine increased. In 2014, 208 Mainers died, up from 176 in 2013. These statistics are a sad and tragic reminder of the failures of our current drug policy. Many of these deaths could have been prevented. Many of these families could have been spared the intense pain of the loss of a loved one.

Earlier today, President Obama announced a ban on the federal government’s transfer of certain military vehicles and weaponry to local and state police departments in the United States. This is extremely welcome news, and given that it is effective today, it will immediately begin to show dividends by increasing the trust between police and the public they serve.

This week the Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee of the Maine Legislature will consider LD 113, An Act to Reduce the Penalties for Certain Drug Offenses, sponsored by Senator Katz of Augusta. This bill is an important step towards recognizing and treating drug addiction as a public health rather than criminal justice issue and will be impactful in decreasing criminal justice involvement in Maine. Passage of this bill is a priority for the ACLU of Maine.