News & Commentary

The votes are in from the Maine House --- we protected a woman's right to privacy, her right to choose.  Here are the votes: 1) LD 1193, An Act to Allow a Wrongful Death Cause of Action for the Death of an Unborn Child Final Vote: 82 to 60, the majority Ought Not To Pass Motion carries 2) LD 760, An Act Regarding Informed Consent to an Abortion Final Vote: 90 to 53, the majority Ought Not to Pass Motion carries 3) LD 1339, An Act to Strengthen the Consent Laws for Abortions Performed on Minors and Incapacitated Persons Final Vote: 81 to 61, the majority Ought Not to Pass Motion carries

I'm sitting in the gallery of the Maine House right now - it's almost 5:00 and I plan to be here for several more hours.  I think about the choices I've made in the last several weeks as I've testified before the Judiciary Committee, helped prepare others to testify, spoken with members of the media and members of our legislature.  And I think about a choices I hope to make in the future - the choice to carry a child in order to start a family with my partner. When that time comes, I hope we can go to our health care provider and have a thoughtful and private discussion about our options. I hope that throughout my pregnancy, I remain healthy. At the end, I hope I give birth to a healthy baby. In the event that something goes wrong, I hope we will have the choice to terminate the pregnancy in a safe way. My choices today and in the future are the result of the countless people who have come before me, people who have defended a woman's right to choose. I am thankful for their work. I am discouraged that we still must defend the right to choose, but I am proud to join forces with women and men I deeply respect to protect these rights. Tonight, the House will take up 3 anti-choice bills. And we'll be here to watch the debate and votes on all 3. It is a emotional debate, and hopefully a respectful one. We'll keep you posted.    

The State of Maine Department of Corrections' standards for county jails require that prisoners have the opportunity to have contact visits with family and loved ones--an opportunity to look at a child's face or hold a parent's hand. There are a number of reasons for this policy: human contact is a basic human right, and encouraging prisoners to maintain ties to family reduces the likelihood that they will re-offend. The standard does more than simply protect prisoners--it protects all of us who want to live in a world with less crime. Video conferencing can be great, but it is no substitute for real human contact. York County Jail has asked for an exemption to this standard, so that they can eliminate in-contact visits. We believe that this would be a step backwards in the development of sane thoughtful criminal justice policies, and today I sent a letter to the Commissioner of the Maine Department of Corrections urging him to deny the request. You can read a story about this issue in the York Journal Tribune here, and you can also listen to a Maine public radio story about it here. 

Another school year is in the books, and for the ACLU of Maine it was our busiest ever. Our education program reached 41 different schools this year – representing all 16 counties – and we taught more than 1,650 students about the importance and relevance of the Bill of Rights.   Educating young people from all corners of Maine is a major part of our education program and we’re excited to have reached every county this year. We go anywhere in the state that will have us, no matter how small the class or how rural the school. This year we traveled as far north as Fort Kent and as far south as York, logging well over 4,000 miles on the road. We drove to Greenville, Houlton, Searsport, Dover-Foxcroft, Jonesport, and many other small towns, as well as the more populated areas like Portland and Bangor. In addition to our classroom visits, we also hosted a series of all-day conferences where students attended multiple workshops on a range of topics. From free speech to privacy to equal protection and due process, we’re uniquely equipped to teach about the Bill of Rights and to show young people just how relevant the Constitution is to their lives.   Maine is a big state and connecting with schools in every county takes a true team effort. Between our student conferences and our classroom visits, we led 119 workshops this year, with presenters literally coming from all corners of the ACLU of Maine. Staffers, board members, lawyers from our legal panel, and volunteers all gave up their time this year to educate young people about what the Bill of Rights says and how it applies to their lives.   Like any teacher will tell you, the summer is never quite the vacation it’s cracked up to be. For us, the next few months provide a great chance to update our lesson plans and create new resources for students and teachers to better appreciate and understand the Bill of Rights. We’ve already begun planning for our student conferences in the fall, so if you’re interested in attending keep checking back for more information in the months ahead. It’s always exciting to talk about the Constitution with young people, and we’re already looking forward to getting back at it this fall!

The man that last week revealed the massive National Security Agency surveillance program to the world came forward over the weekend. Edward Snowden has been working at the NSA for the last four years as an employee of various outside contractors, including Booz Allen and Dell. Much is being made about the extent of the government’s data collection, and Snowden’s decision to blow the whistle. Below are links to a few of the pieces we’ve found especially insightful: Edward Snowden: the whistleblower behind the NSA surveillance revelations (by Glenn Greenwald, Ewen MacAskill and Laura Poitras, the Guardian): The individual responsible for one of the most significant leaks in US political history is Edward Snowden, a 29-year-old former technical assistant for the CIA and current employee of the defence contractor Booz Allen Hamilton. Snowden has been working at the National Security Agency for the last four years as an employee of various outside contractors, including Booz Allen and Dell. Checks, balances, and the National Security Agency (by the ACLU’s Jameel Jaffer and Ben Wizner, msnbc.com): Over the course of three days, the usually invisible National Security Agency has become ostentatiously visible and many Americans do not like what they see. In an effort to address the widely shared feeling that our vaunted system of checks and balances has utterly failed us, President Obama reassured the public Friday that the now-exposed spy programs were sanctioned by “all three branches of government.” Is that true? Yes and no. Edward Snowden, the N.S.A. Leaker, Comes Forward (By Amy Davidson, the New Yorker): “I, sitting at my desk, certainly had the authorities to wiretap anyone, from you or your accountant, to a federal judge or even the President, if I had a personal e-mail,” Edward Snowden told the Guardian. Snowden is twenty-nine; he had worked in a technical capacity for the C.I.A. and then, by way of his employer, Booz Allen Hamilton, as a contractor for the N.S.A. He is the reason our country has, in the last week, been having a conversation on privacy and the limits of domestic surveillance. That was overdue, and one wishes it had been prompted by self-examination on the part of the Obama Administration or real oversight by Congress. But both failed, and it came in the form of Snowden handing highly classified documents—a lot of them—to journalists.

Each Friday, we’ll bring you updates on the latest civil liberties news from Maine and the nation. Privacy Under Attack The Guardian reported this week that the National Security Administration has tracked every call made from Verizon Business Network Services for the past 41 days. The surveillance includes both numbers from the call, whom they talked to, from where, and for how long. Read Zach’s blog to learn more about the NSA’s Orwellian attack on cell phone privacy. Then sign our petition to stop the massive government spying program. 

Our basic right to privacy is under attack across the country, including here in Maine. Yesterday, The Guardian newspaper revealed that U.S. government has been secretly tracking the calls of every Verizon Business Network Services customer for at least the past 41 days. And here in Maine, the Portland Press Herald has reported that Maine law enforcement is monitoring hundreds of cellphone users across the state, most of whom have done nothing wrong. Both reports point to the need for updates to our electronic privacy laws and for greater oversight by our courts. As my colleague Jameel Jaffer wrote concerning the Verizon monitoring, "It's a program in which some untold number of innocent people have been put under the constant surveillance of government agents." The Guardian obtained and published a classified court order requiring Verizon to provide access to the customer data, under Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT ACT. The ACLU and other privacy rights organizations are calling for termination of the order and an investigation of its rationale and scope. For many of us who have been working to challenge government surveillance,

How many times have you heard the phrase "reduce recidivism"? For me, I hear it a lot - every time I'm talking about a bill that has something to do with our criminal justice system, someone talks about reducing recidivism. We all want offenders to be rehabilitated, re-entering society after incarceration ready make productive and good choices.  One of the ways that's been proven to help formerly incarcerated individuals from re-offending is to allow them to maintain their voting rights. Voting keeps someone connected to their community, involved in decisions that impact where they will someday again live and work.  Right now in Maine, there's a bill being debated that would change our state's constitution, taking away voting rights from people who have been convicted of a Class A crime who are incarcerated. We're strongly opposed to this bill because we do not believe that incarcerated individuals, regardless of the crime they have committed, should lose their right to vote. They are already serving a sentence and losing the right to vote will only add another punishment that is unlikely to deter crime from occurring.  We are opposed to stripping voting rights away from any citizen - regardless of their criminal record or if they are currently serving a sentence. We're proud to stand behind our state's long history of progressive voting laws and will continue to do so.  Care about voting? Call your legislator today regarding LD 573, Proposing an Amendment to the Constitution of Maine To Restrict the Voting Privileges of Persons Incarcerated for Murder or Class A Crimes. Tell them to oppose the bill and oppose changing the constitution to take away voting rights. 

Black people are twice as likely as white people to be arrested for marijuana possession in Maine, despite the fact that they use marijuana at the same rates, according to a startling new report from our national office.Alarmingly, in York County, blacks are five times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession – higher than the national average of just under four times.According to the report, there were 2,842 arrests for marijuana possession in Maine in 2010, accounting for 47.9% of all drug arrests. 75 of them, or 2.6 percent, were arrests of black people, even though black people made up only 1.2 percent of the population.The report estimates that Maine spends $8.8 million on marijuana possession enforcement annually - including police, judicial and legal services, and corrections expenditures. Nationally, states spent an estimated $3.61 billion enforcing marijuana possession in 2010 alone.This information comes as the Maine Legislature considers LD 1229, which would send the question of marijuana legalization directly to the voters. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Diane Russell, will be voted on by the full House and Senate soon and has our support.Eliminating penalties for low-level marijuana possession will prevent people from becoming enmeshed in the criminal justice system in the first instance. Moreover, legalization will eliminate the many collateral consequences that flow from marijuana arrests, thereby reducing the number of people entering or otherwise harmed by the criminal justice system.The time has come for Maine, and the nation, to realize that less punitive approaches to criminal justice not only make more fiscal sense but also better protect our communities. We look forward to working with the people of Maine for sensible reform.