PORTLAND – The ACLU of Maine will honor Orlando Delogu with the 25th annual Justice Louis Scolnik Award on Thursday, May 2 at the Harraseeket Inn in Freeport. In a distinguished career at the University of Maine School of Law spanning over 47 years, Delogu has been a reasoned and outspoken advocate for civil liberties and the public interest. The group will also welcome featured speaker Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the national ACLU.
"Maine's civil libertarians owe a debt of gratitude to Orlando Delogu,” said Zachary Heiden, Legal Director at the ACLU of Maine. “As a founder member of the Maine Civil Liberties Union, a distinguished law professor and a passionate advocate for the public interest, he helped blaze a trail for all of us doing this work in Maine today. We are thrilled to be able to honor him with the Scolnik Award."
As a founding member and board president of the Maine Civil Liberties Union, Delogu oversaw critical growth during the organization’s infancy from 1967 through 1973. During his tenure, the MCLU achieved its first major victory in a case involving a Belfast High School teacher who was fired for discussing sexuality as part of a class on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.
Featured speaker Anthony D. Romero is the national ACLU's sixth executive director, and the first Latino and openly gay man to serve in that capacity. In 2005, Romero was named one of Time Magazine's 25 Most Influential Hispanics in America.
The Justice Louis Scolnik Award was established in 1989 to honor members of the legal community who have demonstrated an outstanding commitment to the protection of civil liberties. The award is named for former Maine Supreme Court Justice Louis Scolnik. Justice Scolnik was a co-founder and the first president of the Maine Civil Liberties Union (now the ACLU of Maine).
More information about the award and the dinner is available online at www.aclumaine.org/scolnik2013
