News & Commentary

The Honorable Caroline Glassman, the first woman to serve as a Justice on the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, passed away this week at the age of 90. All of the Maine papers have published thoughtful obituaries: a few can be read here and here and here.  The slide show that accompanies the Portland Press Herald's story is particularly moving. Justice Glassman was an inspiration to many of us--thoughtful, hard-working, and energetic. A number of years ago the Maine Law Review published a special symposium edition on law and feminism. Justice Glassman's contribution, "Then and Now: A Perspective," shared her recollections of law school in the 1940s:

Last year, the ACLU of Maine lobbied ferociously to defeat LD 1095, a bill designed to facilitate the creation and use of private prisons in Maine.  As usual, the justification for private prisons was based on the stale fallacy that governments can save money through private facilities.  We focused on what lies at the heart of our skyrocketing incarceration costs: over incarceration.  Between 1970 and 2005, the U.S. prison population grew by 700 percent, far outpacing both population growth and crime. As a result, our country now has 5% of the world's population but 25% of the world's prisoners. We argued that the imprisonment of human beings at record levels is both a moral failure and an economic one — especially at a time when more and more Americans are struggling to make ends meet and when state governments confront enormous fiscal crises.This mass incarceration has provided a gigantic windfall for one special interest group — the private prison industry — even as current incarceration levels harm the country as a whole.Yesterday, a report released from a faction of the hacktivist group Anonymous concluded that the publicly traded prison operator Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) is not an efficient, profitable free-market solution -- but actually a bad investment for shareholders.This is a promising indication that America's reckless addiction to incarceration is beginning to wane.   CCA did not exist before this massive expansion of incarceration – and the company depends on it to survive.Update: Bloomberg has this story of a private prison in Mississippi, and what goes wrong when we start locking people up for profit.

Last year, the ACLU of Maine lobbied ferociously to defeat LD 1095, a bill designed to facilitate the creation and use of private prisons in Maine.  As usual, the justification for private prisons was based on the stale fallacy that governments can save money through private facilities.   We focused on what lies at the heart of our skyrocketing incarceration costs: over incarceration.  Between 1970 and 2005, the U.S. prison population grew by 700 percent, far outpacing both population growth and crime. As a result, our country now has 5% of the world's population but 25% of the world's prisoners.  We argued that the imprisonment of human beings at record levels is both a moral failure and an economic one — especially at a time when more and more Americans are struggling to make ends meet and when state governments confront enormous fiscal crises. This mass incarceration has provided a gigantic windfall for one special interest group — the private prison industry — even as current incarceration levels harm the country as a whole. Yesterday, a report released from a faction of the hacktivist group Anonymous concluded that the publicly traded prison operator Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) is not an efficient, profitable free-market solution -- but actually a bad investment for shareholders. This is a promising indication that America's reckless addiction to incarceration is beginning to wane.   CCA did not exist before this massive expansion of incarceration – and the company depends on it to survive. Update: Bloomberg has this story of a private prison in Mississippi, and what goes wrong when we start locking people up for profit.

Today, Portland played host to a group of speakers from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), consumer rights advocates, debt collection industry professionals and more for a panel discussion of the CFPB’s new measures which aim to help inform people who are in debt of their rights when dealing with harassing calls from debt collection agencies. For so many Americans who have found themselves in debt, these third party debt collection agencies become a constant, unrelenting torment.  The CFPB announced today that they now provide 5 “action letters” on their site that allow people to file complaints with and about these harassing phone calls from debt collectors and recover a degree of control over their loans and payments.  As it stands, these debt collectors will often lie to people about the nature of their debt (the amount, the payment’s possible effect on credit score, etc.) with little or no actual recourse. These action letters are intended to not only inform people of their rights when it comes to their debt, but also to inform consumer protection and oversight groups about underhanded, illegal and predatory actions taken by debt collection agencies.  This action taken by the CFPB is an important step in protecting the rights of consumers, however it doesn't really get at the root of the problem.  Often times, the problem is not simply with the coercive tactics used by debt collectors, but with the debt itself. For instance, the practice of banks “redlining,” or refusing loans, in predominantly minority neighborhoods, allowed for predatory lenders to come in and provide loans with outrageously high interest rates which were likely to result in defaults and foreclosures. Click here for more information on these predatory loans, and a deeper explanation for why the subprime mortgage industry and the 2008 financial collapse disproportionately affected minority communities.  The ACLU has done some work in the area of predatory loans aimed at people of color. See Adkins et al. vs. Morgan Stanley, an ongoing lawsuit which the ACLU brought on behalf of African American residents of Detroit, MI who have been harmed by Morgan Stanley’s practice of purchasing and financing predatory home mortgage loans to be included in mortgage-backed securities. The goal of this lawsuit is to hold Morgan Stanley accountable for its collaboration with the subprime lender New Century, which supplied Morgan Stanley with a steady stream of irresponsible, high-risk loans issued in communities of color that were particularly vulnerable to economic ruin. Five years after the so-called “Great Recession” came crashing down on us, Wall Street is again making records. Yet average people are still shouldered with tons of bad debt, garnished wages, liens and harassing calls from debt collectors.  It is important that these people are given avenues to deal with their debt, and these new action letters provided by the CFPB are certainly a good way of allowing people to talk to the debt holders on their own terms.  Additionally it will help to prevent, to a certain degree, these types of predatory lending practices in the future.However, when someone working two or three jobs already doesn’t make enough to put food on the table, much less pay off a loan with a 10% APR, it makes one wonder what amount of good can these types of policies really do for them?

Today, Portland played host to a group of speakers from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), consumer rights advocates, debt collection industry professionals and more for a panel discussion of the CFPB’s new measures which aim to help inform people who are in debt of their rights when dealing with harassing calls from debt collection agencies. For so many Americans who have found themselves in debt, these third party debt collection agencies become a constant, unrelenting torment.  The CFPB announced today that they now provide 5 “action letters” on their site that allow people to file complaints with and about these harassing phone calls from debt collectors and recover a degree of control over their loans and payments.  As it stands, these debt collectors will often lie to people about the nature of their debt (the amount, the payment’s possible effect on credit score, etc.) with little or no actual recourse.   These action letters are intended to not only inform people of their rights when it comes to their debt, but also to inform consumer protection and oversight groups about underhanded, illegal and predatory actions taken by debt collection agencies.  This action taken by the CFPB is an important step in protecting the rights of consumers, however it doesn't really get at the root of the problem.  Often times, the problem is not simply with the coercive tactics used by debt collectors, but with the debt itself.  For instance, the practice of banks “redlining,” or refusing loans, in predominantly minority neighborhoods, allowed for predatory lenders to come in and provide loans with outrageously high interest rates which were likely to result in defaults and foreclosures. Click here for more information on these predatory loans, and a deeper explanation for why the subprime mortgage industry and the 2008 financial collapse disproportionately affected minority communities.  The ACLU has done some work in the area of predatory loans aimed at people of color. See Adkins et al. vs. Morgan Stanley, an ongoing lawsuit which the ACLU brought on behalf of African American residents of Detroit, MI who have been harmed by Morgan Stanley’s practice of purchasing and financing predatory home mortgage loans to be included in mortgage-backed securities. The goal of this lawsuit is to hold Morgan Stanley accountable for its collaboration with the subprime lender New Century, which supplied Morgan Stanley with a steady stream of irresponsible, high-risk loans issued in communities of color that were particularly vulnerable to economic ruin.   Five years after the so-called “Great Recession” came crashing down on us, Wall Street is again making records. Yet average people are still shouldered with tons of bad debt, garnished wages, liens and harassing calls from debt collectors.  It is important that these people are given avenues to deal with their debt, and these new action letters provided by the CFPB are certainly a good way of allowing people to talk to the debt holders on their own terms.  Additionally it will help to prevent, to a certain degree, these types of predatory lending practices in the future. However, when someone working two or three jobs already doesn’t make enough to put food on the table, much less pay off a loan with a 10% APR, it makes one wonder what amount of good can these types of policies really do for them?

Last week we told you about some privacy bills that were passed by the Maine Legislature and sitting on the governor's desk waiting to become law. Today we've got an update for you, and it's good! (editor's note: this post has been updated to reflect the Legislature's override of the governor's veto on one of our bills) Here's where things stand: LD 1377, which would require warrants before the police could read your text messages or obtain your cell phone records: became law on June 8 after Gov. LePage took no action on the bill, which easily passed in the Senate and the House.

Last week we told you about some privacy bills that were passed by the Maine Legislature and sitting on the governor's desk waiting to become law. Today we've got an update for you, and it's good!(editor's note: this post has been updated to reflect the Legislature's override of the governor's veto on one of our bills)Here's where things stand:LD 1377, which would require warrants before the police could read your text messages or obtain your cell phone records: became law on June 8 after Gov. LePage took no action on the bill, which easily passed in the Senate and the House.

This Thursday we’ll be taking part in two separate events in Portland dealing with two of the most pressing civil liberties issues of 2013: government surveillance and immigration. Both events are free and open to the public, but they’re taking place concurrently so you’ll have to pick your pleasure! Over on the campus of the University of Southern Maine, we’ll be taking part in a panel addressing “The Constitutional Dangers of Government Surveillance” from 6 to 8 PM. This presentation, arranged by Peace Action Maine, will explore the recent disclosures about government surveillance and whether or not such surveillance is constitutional. Our own Rachel Healy will explain the ACLU lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the NSA phone tracking system, and she’ll be joined by presenters from Codepink Maine, University of Lund, and the Maine Tea Party. The event takes place at Talbot Hall, with light refreshments and networking time from 6:00 to 6:30, followed by the presentations and a question and answer session. While that event is wrapping up, we’ll be over at the Portland Public Library for a screening of the documentary “Special Flight,” which examines the plight of undocumented immigrants at a detention center in Switzerland. (Watch the trailer here.) The short film – which is featured as part of the library’s POV Summer Documentary Series – points to the contradictions between compassionate social policies and intractable immigration laws. After the screening, I’ll be leading an audience discussion about the documentary and how it speaks to our own immigration reform efforts here in the United States. The film begins at 7:30 p.m. and will take place in Meeting Room #5 at the library. Both events are free and open to the public, with light refreshments offered at each. If you have any questions about either event, give us a call at 774-5444. We hope to see you at one of them!

Victory! At the end of last week, a bill that would prohibit law enforcement from installing a surveillance camera on private property passed into law! The bill, LD 1040, was one of several bills that stand for the basic principle that the government should have to get a warrant before conducting surveillance on private citizens.Three more bills that would put similar warrant requirements in place for new technologies are on the governor's desk: the drones bill, LD 236; the location tracking bill, LD 415; and the text message privacy bill, LD 1377. You can read about them in Rachel's blog post here.The bills now before the governor are LDs 236, 415 and 1377. The governor has until Monday to sign or veto them. If you agree that Mainers deserve these important privacy protections, call his office at 207-287-3531. Leave a message for the governor urging him to sign these three bills into law.