American Civil Liberties Union of Maine Foundation

Legal program - the aclu-me's legal program is central to our Civil Liberties work. Over the past year, we won important legal victories in our ongoing class action lawsuit to vindicate the right to effective assistance of counsel (robbins v. mcils), defeating the state's motion to dismiss and obtaining class certification so we can represent over 5,000 indigent defendants on their sixth amendment claims. We won victories in three separate public records cases, including a precedent-setting win at the state supreme court holding (for the first time) that a government entity withheld public records in bad faith. We filed amicus briefs and argued cases at the state supreme court supporting more expansive criminal procedure protections, including the right to a speedy trial and the right to remain silent. And we filed an amicus brief in a u.s. supreme court case (acheson v. laufer), supporting Civil rights testers' standing to enforce disability-discrimination laws.

Public education - the aclu of Maine's public education program raises awareness of how the constitution's protections impact Mainer's daily lives. We supported the legal department's work by publicizing important lawsuits and amicus briefs in the press and on social media, including for robbins v. mcils and human rights defense center v. Maine county commissioners' association self-funded risk management. We also created new know your rights print materials that cover a variety of topics, including voting, interacting with immigration and customs enforcement (ice), interacting with police, and protesting. Additionally, the aclu of Maine tabled a number of events to engage directly with Maine people, including events such as a film screening, a local hockey game, juneteenth celebrations, and pride festivals. The aclu of Maine regularly works with local, state, and national media to inform journalists and the broader public of our work and how they can get engaged.