ACLU Files Bogus Lawsuit Accusing the Somerset County Board of Education of Not Producing Documents
- Fellow Editors
- Apr 14
- 4 min read
The Somerset County Board of Education released a statement on April 14, 2026:
The ACLU has decided to deceive the public by filing a bogus lawsuit and accused the Somerset County Board of Education of not producing MPIA requested documents under the law.
On August 11, 2025 ACLU requested hundreds of pages of documents in a letter to the Somerset Board of Education. The letter is filled with bizarre and bogus allegations as is their copy/paste Press Release today:
that Somerset County selection of the Maryland State approved Curriculum is Censorship;
that somehow the Maryland board cannot vote in an open session to rescind old dated policies as Somerset County did back in 2025 and now in 2026;
that the local school board had no right to replace legal counsel ignoring a quarter century Maryland Supreme Court Precedent in re/Chesapeake Charters etc and the right of anyone in America to choose his or her own attorney. Oddly, ACLU never questioned other counties when they replaced the exact same legal counsel who previously also covered the Somerset County school board as if all other counties in Maryland can replace that attorney and somehow Somerset County cannot do so in the exact same manner.
As far as policy 500-19, the School board has provided the policy and open meetings debates have been ongoing and presently the Superintendent is working with the Library Specialists on proper sorting and selection of media materials. The only requirement of the Board members is to know what books they are supposed to be buying before the books are purchased - publicly and transparently: the Board wants the public to know titles and to hear the debates whether the book selection is educationally suitable and not pervasively vulgar in the most transparent and public manner. Every parent in Somerset County will know openly and transparently what books media specialists propose; why and how those books improve the ELA of students in Somerset County. This process is fully transparent and public.
Somerset County did not have an Executive Closed Session since 2025 and all board meetings in 2026 were live, public and transparent so to allege "rogue" actions by the board is nothing short of fantasy and bad faith.
Currently, legal counsel ensured that Somerset County's Education Article, Subtitle 12 has been amended to update archaic sections of the Maryland Education Article specifically reserved for Somerset County, and that process has been successful.
Somerset county provided hundreds of pages of documents to the ACLU properly categorized into 3 categories:
A) Documents subject to MPIA have been provided.
B) Documents subject to MPIA exception have been properly listed and provided statutory exception.
C) Documents not in Somerset County's chain of custody have been identified and listed.
Responses attached here:
All this has been provided timely and lawfully back in September 2025 and attached herein.
ACLU's "Press Release" is further imbedded with slander of the Board's attorneys. Needless to say, the ACLU published a defamatory statement about the experience of our attorneys, especially in light that it is a public knowledge: that Schifanelli Law, LLP's senior Partner, Marc Schifanelli, Esq also had served for 4 years as an elected member of the Queen Anne's County Board of Education and served as the President of Queen Anne's County Board of Education in the term 2020-2024. I am expecting at least one of the numerous attorneys listed under the ACLU that he or she has also served as an elected board member in ANY Maryland County and that he or she would also be equally competent to criticize the experience of Schifanelli Law Partners.
Lastly, the ACLU filed a bogus, bad faith lawsuit in order to drum up hate, controversy and debate in the Baltimore City Circuit Court.
If there was a legitimate concern for Somerset County residents and parents, the proper and more suitable venue would certainly be in the Somerset County Circuit Court.
Somerset County Residents voted for their local school board and the local school board voted for all staff, employees and new Superintendent.
ACLU's forum shopping and playing games by smearing the Somerset County Board, its staff, employees and lawyers is the ultimate objective of the ACLU with this lawsuit in a time when Somerset County local residents and their school board have only one goal at this time: to improve the student proficiency.
Currently, Somerset County is the worst performing school district in Maryland, with 90% of its students cannot do math at their grade level and only 1/3 of students can read at their grade level.
The ACLU's ignorance coupled with their "skin color activism" represents the most reprehensible mission of any non-profit organization in Maryland.
-Somerset County Board of Education
Fellows & Editors
April 15, 2026. DelmarvaPTC.org.
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