Maine Governor Rejects Automatic Criminal Record Sealing Bill Over Legal and Public Safety Concerns

Maine Governor Janet Mills vetoed L.D. 1911, An Act to Automatically Seal Criminal History Record Information for Certain Crimes, in a statement issued on Friday, citing significant legal, public safety, and fiscal concerns.

Why Governor Mills Vetoed L.D. 1911

The bill proposed directing the Judicial Branch to manually review decades of criminal docket files to identify and seal records eligible for removal from public access. Governor Mills raised three primary objections:

• Constitutional violations: The legislation would mandate sealing Class D domestic violence assault records, which the governor argued runs counter to public interest.
• First Amendment concerns: A ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit suggests that automatically sealing criminal records without case-by-case review may violate the First Amendment.
• Excessive costs and inefficiency: The bill would require hiring seven permanent employees to perform the manual sealing process, with only a fraction of the associated costs appropriated. Governor Mills noted this ongoing expense could be avoided by allowing individuals to request record sealing rather than mandating automatic sealing.

Key Provisions of L.D. 1911

Under L.D. 1911, the Judicial Branch would have been required to seal records of misdemeanor convictions—classified as Class D and Class E crimes in Maine law—five years after the date of conviction. The bill included a list of exceptions for specific offenses that would remain ineligible for sealing, such as:

• Assault (17-A M.R.S. §207)
• Stalking (17-A M.R.S. §210)
• Misdemeanor sex crimes (17-A M.R.S. §§251-285)
• Criminal operating under the influence (29-A M.R.S. §2411)

Notably, the bill omitted Class D domestic violence assault (17-A M.R.S. §207-A) from this list of exemptions, which Governor Mills described as an oversight that could conceal records of intimate partner violence from public view.

Governor Mills’ Constitutional and Public Interest Concerns

"A criminal conviction is the culmination of work by all three branches of government. The Legislature has enacted a statute prohibiting certain conduct, the Executive has prosecuted a violation of the statute, and the Judiciary has entered judgment. This process should be transparent, and records documenting this work should remain available and subject to public scrutiny except where there is a compelling public interest exists to justify secrecy, as is true, for example, for juvenile cases."

Governor Mills emphasized that criminal records serve as a public record of government actions and should remain accessible unless a compelling interest justifies secrecy. She cited Globe Newspaper Co. v. Pokaski, 868 F.2d 497, 509 (1st Cir. 1989) to support this position, arguing that L.D. 1911’s automatic sealing provisions could not withstand constitutional review in federal court.

Fiscal and Operational Burdens

In addition to constitutional concerns, Governor Mills highlighted the bill’s operational and financial implications. The legislation would have required the Judicial Branch to review every criminal docket manually to determine sealing eligibility, a process already permitted under existing Maine law through individual requests. The governor noted that the proposed mandate would impose an unnecessary and costly burden on the state.