
By Lauren McCauley | Editor
“I have a 20-page lease that I need to re-sign every single year and it asks me not to do unlawful activity…I would assume that that includes murdering someone in cold blood.” - Sarah Lunt of Scarborough, arguing that the town should have the authority to oust the local ICE processing facility.

Neal Katyal (left), Larry Lessig, Rick Bennett and Maia Cook address reporters outside the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston on July 29, 2026, after oral arguments. (By Emma Davis/ Maine Morning Star)
JUSTICE
By Emma Davis
The U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision that struck down limits on independent political spending does not need to be overturned to rein in Big Money in politics, Neal Katyal argued before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston on Wednesday in defense of Maine’s 2024 referendum regulating political spending.
IMMIGRATION
By Lauren McCauley
Members of the Scarborough Town Council voted Wednesday to pass a proclamation calling on Maine’s congressional delegation to look into the operations of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing facility in the town after a federal agent shot and killed a man in Biddeford earlier this month.
But residents who spoke at the town council meeting said the proclamation doesn’t go far enough.
IMMIGRATION
By Emma Davis and Lauren McCauley
Dozens of Democratic legislators sent a letter to the head of U.S. Department of Homeland Security Wednesday reiterating the call for transparency and accountability regarding the July 13 killing of Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero.
IMMIGRATION
By Eesha Pendharkar
The five administrative claims filed by the local affiliate Wednesday are among 54 others filed in 17 states and Washington, D.C., under the Federal Tort Claims Act, which allows people to seek financial compensation for harm caused by federal employees.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Staff at nonprofit The Maine Monitor unionize | Kaitlyn Budion
Number of unauthorized immigrants hit new high of nearly 16 million in 2024, report says | Ariana Figueroa, States Newsroom
TSA shares passengers’ personal information with immigration enforcement, documents show | Ariana Figueroa, States Newsroom
False CPS report that separated Buttigieg from his children now under AG investigation | Katherine Dailey, Michigan Advance
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