If you regularly read this blog (or read Maine newspapers, or watch Maine television news, or listen to Maine Public Radio), you probably know about the work the MCLU has been doing to protect student privacy.  The Maine Department of Education has recently required all Maine schools to ask parents for their childrens' social security numbers--the schools have to ask, but parents do not have to turn over the numbers.  Nothing ba | continue reading

It contrast to demagoguery over the location of mosques and Muslim community centers, which apparently will never go away, the right to privacy of medical records could indeed go away. | continue reading

I should probably not be surprised at the durability of a seemingly absurd political fight during an election season, but the controversy over the building of a mosque and community center in lower Manhattan has gone on far longer than I expected.  While some may have hoped that if they ignored the fight long enough it would go away, that does not seem to be an option.  Now seems an appropriate time for supporters of religious freedom (and freedom generally) to speak out, clearly and forcefully, about why it is legally and morally unacceptable to bar a group of Muslims from establish | continue reading

The Maine Supreme Judicial Court issued an interesting decision this week that, ironically, involved lie detectors.  To briefly summarize, a criminal suspect was given a four-hour polygraph test, which he was told was "foolproof."  After the exam, the police told the suspect that he had failed the polygraph test, and they then tried (successfully, it turned out) to elicit a confession.
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There is a new blog post on the ACLU Blog of Rights about some work we've done here in Maine (along with our friends at the ACLU LGBT Project and GLAD) to help improve the Cumberland County Jail policies for transgender inmates.  The real hero of this effort has been Cumberland County Sheriff Mark Dion, who decided that he wanted his jail to have the best policy in the country f | continue reading

(originally published on the ACLU Blog of Rights)
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The Washington Post reported yesterday on the release of a transcript of a House Judiciary Committee deposition of Judge Jay Bybee, concerning torture of detainees by the C.I.A.  The transcript included this revelation by Judge Bybee: "many brutal techniques reportedly used in CIA interrogations were not authorized".  This is startling for at least three reasons.
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I've forced myself to read the selections of torture documents that the ACLU is posting on its blog each day, and I wish that I had also made a record of my impressions to each as the days have passed.  They are consistently shocking, so much so that I sometimes have a hard time believing that they are real.  But, these are not the reports of human rights organizations or other outside observers--these are the government's own documents, turned over to us only after years of protracted litigation.  | continue reading