Maine: Maine Civil Liberties Union

PORTLAND, Maine — A group of judges, lawyers and legislators has recommended that the Maine judiciary get out of the business of overseeing the delivery of legal services to defendants who cannot afford to pay lawyers.

The 120-page report of the Indigent Legal Services Commission was posted Tuesday on the court system’s Web site. It recommends that more than $10.5 million now in the judiciary budget to pay for indigent legal defense be moved to a budget line in the General Fund and be administered by a commission to be created this session by the Legislature.

No new money would be needed to create or staff the commission, Mary Ann Lynch, spokeswoman for the judiciary, said Thursday.

AUGUSTA, Maine — Supporters of traditional marriage will gather from 6 to 8 p.m. today at the Augusta Civic Center to voice their opposition to a bill that would allow same-sex couples to marry in Maine.

Representatives of the Maine Family Policy Council, formerly the Christian Civic League of Maine, the Maine Jeremiah Project, Concerned Women for America of Maine and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland are expected to participate in the “Stand for Marriage Rally.”

Tony Perkins, president of the Washington, D.C.-based Christian Family Resource Council since 2003, is scheduled to give the keynote address. Perkins, 45, served in the Louisiana House of Representatives before taking his current position.

AUGUSTA, Maine — Opponents of a Maine law that tightened driver’s license requirements say they will attempt to repeal portions of the measure, which the Legislature approved last spring under pressure from the federal government.

The bill imposed several changes aimed at making driver’s licenses more secure. The changes were sought by Gov. John Baldacci to avert a showdown with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which contended Maine’s lax standards encouraged fraud.

But critics argued that the stricter requirements infringed on civil liberties.

Now opponents are hoping to repeal parts of the law. And they’re hoping the change to a Democratic presidential administration will result in changes to the national law, known as Real ID.