O’Malley responds to ACLU lawsuit

Gov. Martin O’Malley released the following statement on Friday regarding an ongoing American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit over police surveillance of anti-war and anti-death penalty activists while Republican Bob Ehrlrich was governor.

“While these events happened in 2005 and 2006 under the previous administration, the Maryland State Police, under the O'Malley-Brown Administration, does not and will not use public resources to target or monitor peaceful activities where Maryland citizens are exercising their First Amendment rights,” O’Malley said in a statement.

He continued: “The State Police and other law enforcement agencies have an obligation to take seriously and investigate all potential threats to public safety consistent with state and federal law, including the Criminal Intelligence Systems Operating Policies contained at 28 Code of Federal Regulations Part 23. But where there is no evidence of a potential public threat, illegal activity or criminal wrongdoing, all investigatory or intelligence gathering activities shall cease.”

The ACLU released documents that show the state police had been conducting undercover surveillance on war protestors and death penalty opponents during former Ehrlich’s term in office.

Former state police superintendent Tim Hutchins told the Washington Post that Ehrlich was not aware of the surveillance program, and that the program was conducted in a completely legal fashion. The article questioned whether the controversial actions were still being conducted during O’Malley’s tenure as governor.

The ACLU sued the Maryland State Police in June for declining to release public documents regarding the surveillance activities. Forty-three pages of summaries and computer logs from the police were released to the ACLU this week.