Lawyer, judge and civil rights leader, Lewiston’s Lou Scolnik brought the Maine Civil Liberties Union into being in 1968, although he won’t take the credit.

In 1952, a Lewiston man, fresh out of Georgetown University Law School in Washington, D.C., returned home to begin his career.

Louis Scolnik, now 85, said it was a law professor who told him to leave the lawyer-riddled U.S. Capitol and return home.

“He said, ‘If you come from a small town, go back there and practice law, don’t work for the government,'” said Scolnik. “Best decision I ever made was to come back.”

As it turns out, his choice was arguably the best decision ever made for the sake of civil liberties for all Maine residents.

Scolnik, after working as a volunteer with the American Civil Liberties Union for 16 years, was pivotal in forming Maine’s own affiliate in 1968 and then became the MCLU’s first president.

On May 8th, the organization is holding its 40th anniversary dinner, named after Scolnik, in honor of all 22 of its past presidents; a list that includes Scolnik as well as longtime Lewiston attorney Jim Burke.

Scolnik will make the trip back to Maine for the dinner from Andover, Mass., where he moved with his wife, Paula, just last year. The couple left their home of 48 years to be closer to one of their three daughters, but they still own their home on 10 Mountain Ave. in Lewiston.

The MCLU’s aim, according to its mission statement, is to “advance and preserve civil liberties of Maine people through litigation, advocacy, public education and lobbying.” As a result of Scolnik’s own civil rights work and leadership with the MCLU, that mission has resulted in a broad range of civil rights protections – some controversial – including:

• In 1970, suggesting religious crosses not be placed on public buildings in Lewiston;

• In 1970, testifying that public funding of parochial schools is unconstitutional;

• In 1976, helping defeat a proposal by then-Gov. James Longley to introduce prayer in school;

• In 1986, helping defeat a statewide referendum banning “obscene material” in Maine;

• In 1990, successfully defending a flag-burning veteran.

Proving racial bias in apartment rentals in Maine

Scolnik, who graduated from Bates College in 1945 before earning his law degree, said he initially got involved with the ACLU because he was strongly affected by constitutional law class.

“When I got back from law school to practice law I was immediately attracted to the goals of the ACLU and I enlisted as Maine’s only cooperating attorney. I’ve always felt that in balancing the rights of the individual against government interests, that in most instances the scales should tip in the favor of the individual.”

To make a living, Scolnik ran his own private practice in Lewiston for nearly two decades and served as Lewiston’s attorney for five years. He was later appointed to the bench, serving as a judge on the Maine Superior Court and eventually the Maine Supreme Court.

Before 1968 and the founding of the MCLU, Scolnik’s volunteer work consisted of monitoring civil liberties issues in Maine, explaining and defending Supreme Court rulings to service club groups, and writing letters to the editor responding to criticism of peaceful anti-Vietnam war demonstrations. He also provided pro bono legal services to the NAACP.

Major U.S. Supreme Court decisions he dealt with during that period included a ruling making school segregation unconstitutional, in 1954; affirming that criminal defendants must be appointed an attorney if they cannot afford one, in 1963; and upholding that criminal suspects must be informed of their rights prior to police questioning, in 1966.

Scolnik said Maine was not generally a hotbed for civil rights cases, but he did testify before the state Legislature in 1963 in favor of a bill to end housing discrimination. He said the initial legislation failed because of resistance from real estate agents who claimed discrimination wasn’t happening in the state.

“For the most part, the people of our state are fair-minded and demonstrate little prejudice,” Scolnik said in 1963 before the Legislature, according to Sun Journal archives. “This law would prod the conscience of the few who harbor misconceived notions and bias.”

A year later, Scolnik was appointed chairman of the Maine State Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and used his post to hold public hearings on the issue.

“People came in and testified about what was going on,” he said. “They also set up a sting operation, where a black person would go in and ask to rent an apartment and (the landlord or renting agent) would say, ‘Oh no, it’s not available’ and then a white person would go after and get the apartment.”

“So we prepared a report based on the testimony in both Bangor and Portland that showed that there clearly was discrimination, and we presented it to the Legislature,” he said. “We were influential (in getting the state to) enact the statute, but that was just one little step.”

‘Maine is a cut above other states’

Scolnik said a comprehensive human rights act was later passed, following the creation of a Human Rights Task Force in 1968 by Gov. Kenneth Curtis and the formation of the MCLU that same year.

Scolnik said he still stands by the words he spoke about 45 years ago.

“I did have a sense that Maine people were different, that they were ahead of others in that regard,” he said. “It wasn’t hard to convince Maine people of the injustice of racial discrimination. I just think that Maine is a cut above other states when it comes to matters of that nature.”

Perhaps as a result of Maine being “a cut above,” the MCLU did not initially face a heavy workload, Scolnik said.

But there was plenty of help with the effort anyway.

Scolnik said 42 interested people got together in 1968 and decided to start the Maine affiliate. At the time, Maine was among just three states that still hadn’t formed one. He was selected as the group’s first president because someone pointed out he’d been the first volunteer attorney for the ACLU in Maine, Scolnik said.

Shep Lee, a well-known Lewiston-Auburn businessman, political fundraiser and close friend of Scolnik’s, said the MCLU was formed because of the passionate lawyer’s persistence.

“Louis really started the whole thing,” Lee said. “It was really an awareness on his part that we ought to be doing something, and he was able to persuade the rest of us of the same thing.”

Both Lee and Scolnik said there was no specific incident at the time that called for immediate action, rather a more general sense that officially starting the group was the right thing to do.

Lee became a member of the MCLU board and served as its national representative, traveling to New York to represent Maine.

The issues addressed by the MCLU are usually recycled for each generation, said former Lewiston Attorney Jim Burke, who now works as an associate professor at the University of Maine School of Law.

“The government needs to be watched,” Burke said.

Burke served as MCLU president from 1989-91 and from 2005 to January 2008. He said the major issues he dealt with in the late ’80s were AIDS discrimination and prisoners’ rights. More recently, issues concerning the Department of Homeland Security and immigration have dominated the group’s time.

But Burke agreed with Scolnik that Maine citizens are a “cut above.”

“It’s really a wonderful state to live in,” Burke said. “The group we disagree with this week we’ll probably be allies with next week because all we do is stand for those basic liberty issues.”

Scolnik said he was proud of the work accomplished by the group he began so long ago, but humbly deflected the credit.

“In terms of the battles we fought, I’m sure they were more easily won than they are in other states,” he said. “Maine people have always been kind of individualistic, they think for themselves.

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