Maine Civil Liberties Union Appoints Zachary Heiden as Legal Director

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: media@aclu.org

Zachary Heiden, Legal Director of the Maine Civil Liberties Union

PORTLAND, ME – The Maine Civil Liberties Union today announced that it has appointed staff attorney Zachary Heiden as the new MCLU Legal Director. For the last three years, Heiden worked tirelessly as a staff attorney on a wide variety of civil liberties issues, said the MCLU.

“Zach is a passionate and informed defender of civil liberties,” said Shenna Bellows, MCLU Executive Director. “He is an invaluable advocate for the rights of Mainers, and we look forward to his expanded role in directing the MCLU’s legal program.”

In the case of Timothy Sullivan and Larry Dansinger v. City of Augusta, Heiden worked with MCLU cooperating counsel David Webbert of Johnson & Webbert to defend freedom of speech and the right of Maine citizens to protest in the public square. In Julia Anderson, et al. v. Town of Durham, et al., Heiden worked with MCLU cooperating counsel Jeffrey Thaler of Bernstein Shur to successfully defend religious freedom and the state’s right to refuse to fund religious education. Currently, Heiden is representing the MCLU as an intervenor in the ongoing challenges to a Maine Public Utilities Commission investigation into the National Security Agency’s warrantless surveillance program.

As Legal Director, Heiden will lead the legal advocacy work of the MCLU. The MCLU works to preserve and advance the civil liberties of the people of Maine through litigation in the courts and advocacy.

A graduate of Bowdoin College, the University of Florida, and the Boston College Law School, Heiden has served as Law Clerk to the Honorable Susan Calkins, Associate Justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, and has worked as a litigation associate at Testa, Hurwitz & Thibeault, LLP in Boston.