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.
Here in Maine, we learned this week that law enforcement has been monitoring location information from the cell phones of hundreds of Mainers. The ACLU of Maine has been working toward passage of a bill in the Maine legislature that would require law enforcement to obtain warrants before doing just that. The Portland Press Herald published this editorial in support of a warrant requirement for cell phone tracking.
Marijiuana Arrests
Black Mainers are twice as likely as white Mainers to be arrested for marijuana possession, even though both groups use marijuana at the same rate. In York County, blacks are five times more likely to be arrested for marijuana use as whites. These trends hold nationwide. Reporting on information in an ACLU report released this week, the New York Times notes that, nationally, blacks are nearly four times as likely to be arrested as whites. Watch the video below then visit www.aclu.org/marijuana to learn more.