PORTLAND — Orlando Delogu, professor emeritus at the University of Maine School of Law, will be honored Thursday by the ACLU of Maine at the Harraseeket Inn in Freeport with the 25th annual Justice Louis Scolnik Award.

Delogu, whose career at the School of Law has spanned 47 years, is a founding member of the Maine Civil Liberties Union and oversaw the organization’s growth from its infancy from 1967 through 1973.

The ACLU of Maine award ceremony will also host Anthony Romero, executive director of the national ACLU, as its featured speaker.

“Maine’s civil libertarians owe a debt of gratitude to Orlando Delogu,” Zachary Heiden, legal director of the ACLU of Maine, said in a press release. “As a founding 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.”

During Delogu’s 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.”

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. Scolnik was a co-founder and the first president of the Maine Civil Liberties Union, now the ACLU of Maine.

For more ore information, go to the ACLU of Maine’s website.


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