By Michael Shepherd - May 6, 2022
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Good morning from Augusta. Apologies for writing the entire Daily Brief on Thursday and then just ... forgetting to send it. Here's your soundtrack.

What we're watching today

Showdowns between the state and Mainers with "obscene" license plates are coming. We had a nice diversion on Thursday, when Secretary of State Shenna Bellows' office released a draft set of rules governing a new law championed by the Democrat that aims to rid state roads of obscene vanity license plates but could clash with the First Amendment.

Plates referencing swear words, genitalia or encouraging violence or degrading a demographic are barred under the new law, alongside other, smaller prohibitions. It is expected to sweep up 400 or so license plates. Two Bureau of Motor Vehicles staff members will be charged with reviewing existing plates and applications for new ones to see if they pass muster.

The rules themselves are a lot of fun. Among the tools in the state's arsenal to determine whether plates are vulgar would be Urban Dictionary, the site that millennials know well for chronicling slang and pop culture references. If plates are found to violate the law, the state will send a notice to drivers and provide 14 days to appeal. If they do not appeal, they will get a new plate and a partial refund of the vanity plate registration fee.

Bellows, a Democrat who rose in state politics as the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine until 2013, championed the new law, arguing that the First Amendment does not force the state to issue vulgar plates. It was that argument from the ACLU of Maine and others that led former Secretary of State Matt Dunlap's office to stop screening plates in 2015.

Similar restrictions on plates in other states have been tossed by federal and state judges. In testimony on this bill, a state attorney said it was “really impossible to craft a statute that addresses the contents of vanity plates in a way that will be completely free” from a legal challenge.

That is exactly where Maine could be headed by the summer. Bellows' former employer is already calling the new law unconstitutional. Many Mainers find references to "penises, vaginas, breasts, buttocks, drugs, deities, or sex acts offensive," Carol Garvan, legal director of the ACLU of Maine, conceded in a colorful statement.

"We do not doubt the sincerity of their feelings," Garvan said. "But the First Amendment prohibits the state from engaging in content-based censorship, and that is something we do agree on as a state and a nation."

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News and notes

— At the center of furor over the leaked Supreme Court decision that would overturn Roe v. Wade, Sen. Susan Collins is poised to again oppose a Democratic effort to codify abortion rights that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, is expected to bring up next week. Collins and Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, two Republicans who support abortion rights, have called the proposal too sweeping. They have introduced a rival proposal to codify Roe's protections that they want a vote on, but Democrats see it as too limited. Collins is unwilling to break the filibuster and Democrats are unmoved, so the status quo is the likeliest bet on the topic as of right now.

— State Rep. Lois Reckitt, D-South Portland, floated the idea of a right to abortion in Maine to the Portland Press Herald this week. The problem? Three times in the last five years, Reckitt has been unable to win the needed two-thirds support in both chambers for an equal-rights constitutional amendment due to Republican concerns that it could enshrine an implicit right to abortion. An explicit one would be dead on arrival even in the current Legislature.

— There is a Maine political connection to this Saturday's Kentucky Derby. Among the part-owners of Mo Donegal are Augusta Mayor David Rollins and Keith Luke, the city's economic development director. The horse is owned by Iowa-based Donegal Racing, a partnership in which owners buy shares in different stables. Mo Donegal is tied for fourth in the Derby odds now at 10-1. But he starts in the foreboding No. 1 inside position, which no horse has won from since 1986.

— The Democratic Governors Association announced $5 million in TV ad reservations Wednesday on behalf of Gov. Janet Mills in her campaign against former Gov. Paul LePage. The group said it is "all in to protect our incumbents," while its Republican counterpart called the allocation a sign that Mills is vulnerable.

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What we're reading

— ICYMI, the BDN's Caitlin Andrews has a delightful profile of the outgoing (but for how long?) Rep. John Martin. Stay for the never-before-told stories.

— A hunting group linked to rocker and archconservative activist Ted Nugent is funding a lawsuit seeking to overturn Maine's Sunday hunting ban.

— Sports betting will be legal in Maine. It may also take two years to go live, leading to tribal criticism of regulators' slow roadmap.

— Readers told us housing is a major issue facing all types of Maine communities. Help us fine-tune our coverage of the crisis.

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📷 Lead photo: Sal Bartolotta of Bremen poses with his 2007 Toyota Tundra given to him by his father with the vanity plate "KISMYAS" on May 7, 2021. His license plate may be barred under a new Maine law to limit "vulgar" license plates. (BDN photo by Caitlin Andrews)

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