News & Commentary

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

News from Texas Abortion This week, Texas passed some of the most restrictive abortion laws in the country. According to this New York Times article, the bill could force the closure of a majority of the state’s clinics. Terri Burke, executive director of the ACLU of Texas, was quoted in the times article, saying that the bill “leaves 35 percent of the population without access to abortion care and those are rural and, often, poor women.”   Capital Punishment Texas executed two people this week, bringing Texas’s total to 10 executions this year, fully half of the total number of executions in the United States this year. Texas executes more people than any other state. A few weeks ago, Texas executed Kimberly McCarthy, the 500th execution since the death penalty was reinstated 37 years ago. News in Maine Median Strips On Monday, the City of Portland passed an ordinance regulating presence on median strips. By regulating, I mean completely banning except when en route to the other side of the street.  The ordinance bans any presence in any median strip. As Zach astutely points out, you can’t be on a median strip to hold a sign on Election Day, hold a petition to collect signatures, or even just to stop and chat with a friend you bumped into while crossing the road. Read a more thorough discussion of the ordinance in Zach’s blog.   Trayvon Martin Rally There will be a rally in Portland's Monument Square on Monday at 5:00p.m  to honor the memory of Trayvon Martin and call for an end to violence in our communities. Shenna Bellows will speak. Check out our Facebook page for more information on the event.   Nationwide Police Scanning License Plates This week, the ACLU released a report on police use of Automated License Plate Readers. These devices scan license plates of all passing vehicles--sometimes capturing the information and storing it indefinitely. Read more here or check out the slideshow below. As you can see from this map, Maine is one of two states with positive laws governing Automated License Plate Readers, thanks to the work in recent years of the ACLU of Maine.

Today I woke up to a startling and sad article in the New York Times about the rise in heroin use in Maine and across New England. Last year, heroin killed at least 21 people in our state. It's a tragic public health problem, and one that will require a thoughtful, health-based solution. One part of that solution must be to recognize the vital role syringe exchange programs can play in the health and wellbeing of Maine’s residents. Syringe exchange programs reduce the spread of disease through intravenous drug use, which is a serious concern - as of 2009, nearly a third of Maine women living with HIV reported injecting drugs.  The programs also connect people to treatment, provide education on preventing overdose, help people find housing, and connect people to substance abuse treatment programs. According to amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research, the state’s five syringe exchanges provided more than 400 people with referrals to substance abuse treatment programs in 2012 alone. Syringe exchange programs also improve public health by disposing of used syringes that may otherwise be left in parks and public spaces and protecting our law enforcement agents from accidental needle pricks. Finally, as Maine faces serious budget cutbacks, syringe exchange programs save communities money - for every $1 invested in these programs, communities save $3 - $7 in HIV treatment costs alone – money that can be reinvested in making our communities safer and healthier.Unfortunately, despite their very real benefits, communities are banned from spending federal funds earmarked for HIV programs on syringe exchange programs. Currently, Maine has only five syringe exchange programs serving the entire state, operating on incredible tight budgets. Making federal funding for syringe exchange available could help these programs to reach more Mainers with lifesaving services.Senator Susan Collins, who serves on the Senate Appropriations Committee, can help. She can take a leadership role by pushing her colleagues on the committee to end the ban on using federal funds for syringe exchange programs. This won't cost the federal government anything - it will simply mean that communities are free to use existing funds for HIV prevention in the ways that best serve their residents. Please call Senator Collins today and ask her to stand up for the health of our communities. As Maine faces a rise in heroin use, ask her to help make us all safer by taking action to restore federal funding for syringe exchange programs.

Today I woke up to a startling and sad article in the New York Times about the rise in heroin use in Maine and across New England. Last year, heroin killed at least 21 people in our state. It's a tragic public health problem, and one that will require a thoughtful, health-based solution.  One part of that solution must be to recognize the vital role syringe exchange programs can play in the health and wellbeing of Maine’s residents. Syringe exchange programs reduce the spread of disease through intravenous drug use, which is a serious concern - as of 2009, nearly a third of Maine women living with HIV reported injecting drugs.  The programs also connect people to treatment, provide education on preventing overdose, help people find housing, and connect people to substance abuse treatment programs. According to amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research, the state’s five syringe exchanges provided more than 400 people with referrals to substance abuse treatment programs in 2012 alone.  Syringe exchange programs also improve public health by disposing of used syringes that may otherwise be left in parks and public spaces and protecting our law enforcement agents from accidental needle pricks.  Finally, as Maine faces serious budget cutbacks, syringe exchange programs save communities money - for every $1 invested in these programs, communities save $3 - $7 in HIV treatment costs alone – money that can be reinvested in making our communities safer and healthier. Unfortunately, despite their very real benefits, communities are banned from spending federal funds earmarked for HIV programs on syringe exchange programs. Currently, Maine has only five syringe exchange programs serving the entire state, operating on incredible tight budgets. Making federal funding for syringe exchange available could help these programs to reach more Mainers with lifesaving services. Senator Susan Collins, who serves on the Senate Appropriations Committee, can help. She can take a leadership role by pushing her colleagues on the committee to end the ban on using federal funds for syringe exchange programs. This won't cost the federal government anything - it will simply mean that communities are free to use existing funds for HIV prevention in the ways that best serve their residents.  Please call Senator Collins today and ask her to stand up for the health of our communities. As Maine faces a rise in heroin use, ask her to help make us all safer by taking action to restore federal funding for syringe exchange programs.

Over the last six weeks it has become clear that the National Security Agency is engaged in far-reaching, intrusive, and unconstitutional surveillance of Americans' communications.  Details can be found here and here.  The PATRIOT ACT, a rubber stamp FISA court, and huge advances in technology have made this spectacular data collection possible.While much of the media coverage on NSA spying has been focused on collection, we know little about how exactly this data is investigated.    Thanks to John Inglis, the deputy director of the NSA, we now have some idea.   And it's far from reassuring. Yesterday, Mr. Inglis told a member of the House judiciary committee that NSA analysts can perform "a second or third hop query" through its collections of telephone data and internet records in order to find connections to terrorist organizations.  A "hop" is a term indicating connections between people.   The Guardian reports:

Over the last six weeks it has become clear that the National Security Agency is engaged in far-reaching, intrusive, and unconstitutional surveillance of Americans' communications.  Details can be found here and here.  The PATRIOT ACT, a rubber stamp FISA court, and huge advances in technology have made this spectacular data collection possible. While much of the media coverage on NSA spying has been focused on collection, we know little about how exactly this data is investigated.    Thanks to John Inglis, the deputy director of the NSA, we now have some idea.   And it's far from reassuring.  Yesterday, Mr. Inglis told a member of the House judiciary committee that NSA analysts can perform "a second or third hop query" through its collections of telephone data and internet records in order to find connections to terrorist organizations.   A "hop" is a term indicating connections between people.   The Guardian reports:

As you may have seen (or heard, or read) the City of Portland adopted a new ordinance this week governing median strips. If you listened to the debate at the city council meeting, you could be forgiven for thinking that this new ordinance was designed to prevent dangerous or threatening panhandling, or to restrict panhandling in general. It isn't.The new Portland ordinance actually bans anyone from being in any median strip anywhere in Portland for any reason other than crossing from one side of the road to the other. Holding a sign on election day? Illegal. Holding a petition to collect signatures? Illegal. Talking with a friend that you happen to run into while crossing the street? Illegal. And while you may be troubled by the site of panhandlers in some of Portland's busiest thoroughfares, this ordinance does not simply apply to Marginal Way or Forest Avenue--it applies to every median strip in the city, even the grassy ones in Stroudwater or Deering that had previously only been used by kids for lemonade stands. 

Last week, I had the distinct pleasure of attending my first post-DOMA wedding. And how poignant that it was the wedding of my good friend and former colleague Jill Barkley!As most of you know, Jill came to the ACLU of Maine in 2012 to work on the marriage campaign. She was responsible for creating the group Republicans United for Marriage, and thanks to Jill's hard work along with our partners and Maine voters, we won marriage equality at the ballot. And on December 29, many same-sex couples lined up at city hall to finally get married.But not Jill. Jill's partner Trish is a Canadian citizen, so even though Maine would recognize their relationship, the federal  Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) meant that Jill could not sponsor Trish to come to the United States. So, after winning marriage for so many couples, I watched as Jill celebrated with the community, but continued to fight for marriage equality for herself and other bi-national couples - working with Maine's congressional representatives and coalition partners on immigration reform and the Uniting American Families Act.On June 26, in an ACLU case, the Supreme Court declared DOMA unconstitutional. Jill and I were in the State House (where else) when the decision came down. And, although Trish and Jill had gotten engaged several months ago, we finally celebrated whole-heartedly for the first time. As Jill would say, there were lots of feelings. Just two weeks later, Jill and Trish tied the knot in a beautiful ceremony at city hall. I can think of no better way to celebrate the end of DOMA than with the start of Jill and Trish's life together. Cheers!

At the ACLU, we find ourselves working on issues of racial profiling far too often. It permeates so many of the different areas that we work on. From immigration to school discipline to drug arrests to everyday encounters with the police, the sad fact is that racial profiling exists all across our society, including here in Maine.