May has been a busy month for Kathleen MacRae.
She’s taken on the City of Wilmington’s decision to keep Occupy Delaware protesters from assembling in a plaza downtown, and Dover’s Capital School District’s move to curb cyber bullying, saying its new Internet policy goes too far and could impede student free speech.
Before her May got so busy, her workload included a dispute about the right to have pink hair.
Excerpts of interview with ACLU of Delaware Executive Director Kathleen MacRae
Excerpts of interview with ACLU of Delaware Executive Director Kathleen MacRae
MacRae, the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Delaware, seems to have become the state’s civil liberties avenger since she took the post in November of 2010.
“One of my priorities when I took the job was to raise the profile of the ACLU,” MacRae said in an interview at her downtown Wilmington office. “We’re getting more publicity on the work we’re doing.”
Indeed, it’s hard to open the newspaper these days without a story about the organization’s latest foray into the civil liberties debate.
One case that got a lot of media attention, even outside of Delaware, involved a Confederate flag license plate.
In March, an employee at the Delaware Department of Transportation was reprimanded and threatened with suspension for displaying a Confederate flag on his license plate. The worker, Tom Drummond, had the plate on his personal vehicle but his employers wanted him to remove the symbol because DelDOT said the plate was considered by another employee to be harassment.
The ACLU jumped into the fray. The organization informed the state that taking action against the worker for a license plate was “not a constitutionally permissible basis for the government to discipline an employee.”
The group added in a statement that:
“Several federal courts have addressed this precise issue. They have repeatedly found that flags and other symbols, including Confederate Flag license plates, are entitled to First Amendment protection because they are variants of free speech. In a 2001 fourth circuit opinion, they went so far as to say: ‘Flags, especially flags of a political sort, enjoy an honored position in the First Amendment hierarchy.’”
In the end, DelDOT backed down. The ACLU’s involvement was a big part of the reason.
“This decision was made in view of the union’s decision to involve an outside party – in this case the ACLU — in what was essentially a dispute between their members,” said Geoff Sundstrom, a spokesman for the agency, in a statement to DFM News. “With this in mind, we felt the most constructive course was to take no further action, allowing the union and the employees involved to resolve the issue to the extent possible. While we understand some union members feel that symbols they deem offensive should not be displayed in any fashion on the personal vehicles or clothing of their co-workers, we have requested they take these matters up with their union.”
The ACLU, both in Delaware and nationally, has played a significant role in raising public awareness when the rights of individuals are threatened, maintained Eric Rise, who teaches American constitutional law at University of Delaware. In the state, he added, the ACLU “is becoming more visible than it has been in the past.”
It plays a key role in the state, Rise said, because the organization is one of few groups that don’t press a left or right agenda.
“One of the things that’s misunderstood about the ACLU is people think they’re extremists,” he explained. “But that’s actually their jobs, to make the strongest claim for individual rights and to point out where rights are being threatened.”
The state’s ACLU is “a watchdog agency,” he noted, “identifying what they see as problems and bringing them to light.”
While the ACLU’s work is getting a lot of press coverage since MacRae took over, Elizabeth McGeever, president of the ACLU board, said her work continues the great job done by her predecessor Drew Fennel.
Another factor raising the profile of the ACLU in the state, both McGeever and MacRae agreed, has been the addition of Richard Morse, a seasoned attorney formerly from Young Conaway Stargatt & Taylor. “Rich’s presence has enabled Kathleen and others to do more because he can take on the litigation function and free up Kathleen,” McGeever said.
In addition, MacRae is savvy about the digital world, McGeever said. Under her direction, the organization has upgraded its website and gotten more involved in social media as a way to get the ACLU’s message out.
She came to Delaware after working for New Mexico’s ACLU as the development director. MacRae, who has a master’s degree in social work from Rhode Island College with concentrations in policy analysis, community organizing and social service administration, has a long history defending the rights of people in prison. She was the executive director of the New Mexico Coalition to Repeal the Death Penalty and spearheaded repeal legislation in the state’s House of Representatives.
Indeed, two of the top issues on MacRae’s list are reducing incarceration rates in Delaware and challenging the state’s death penalty.
“Over-incarceration is a very serious problem in the country and a national priority,” she explained, adding that it has a particular impact on the African American community and other people of color. “I’m concerned about due process and preventing discrimination.”
The war on drugs, she said, has had an adverse impact on minorities. Voter disenfranchisement that results from criminal convictions is also a key part of the ACLU’s agenda.
Another major issue is the increasingly harsh discipline in school, which MacRae said is a problem throughout the state.
And finally, she’ll focus on cases involving the core ACLU issues of free speech and freedom of religion.
From license plates to pink hair, MacRae said she’s ready to defend the rights of Delawareans throughout the state.
The pink hair issue involved a sixth-grade student who had dyed her hair earlier this year and was told by officials at Shue-Medill Middle School that she couldn’t come to school until she dyed her hair back. The Delaware ACLU took on the issue on behalf of the student’s family and eventually the Christina School District overruled the school.
“We’re looking for cases that are clear violations of civil liberties that will have a larger impact on the community once they’re resolved,” she said.
