On January 22, 2009, his second full day in office, President Obama issued an executive order mandating that the prison camp at Guantánamo Bay be closed within a year. Well, the clock’s ticking and it’s not looking good. As January 22, 2010 fast approaches, the administration is signaling that...

"Jack, you want to prosecute a member of the Bush administration for assaulting suspected terrorists?"

"The word is 'torturing.' And yes — it's about time somebody did."

If you watch Law & Order tonight, you'll see that the "Jack" laying down the gauntlet on accountability for torture is...

Recent reports that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is considering appointing a prosecutor to investigate illegal torture carried out during the Bush administration is a positive sign, especially given President Obama's desire to avoid what he has called "a backward-looking" inquiry. When Holder began studying the brutal acts carried...

It was a day of personal schizophrenia for me.

I woke up on the west coast with news of President Obama's selection of Sonia Sotomayor as the next associate justice of the U.S. Supreme court. My heart swelled with such pride. Over the years, I've had occasion to meet...

On his first day in office, President Obama moved our nation miles ahead on the road to restoring its fundamental values by signing executive orders to close Guantanamo, halt the military commissions and end torture.

The ACLU, like millions of people the world over, cheered. The orders...

I just stepped off an airplane from Gitmo last night and thought it would be a good time to offer an insider’s take on what really happened down there this week. Unlike the many stories that have been in the press, what follows is a view from the defense table...

It's already a time-worn cliché when we say that the election of Barack Obama is historic. I still like saying it. Let me share some of my personal reflections on why this election seems historic and hopeful for a sometimes jaded Executive Director.

Like many of you on Tuesday night,...

President-elect Barack Obama will become chief executive of a nation that has been greatly weakened -- in particular, our freedoms, our values, and our international reputation have been significantly undermined by the policies of the past eight years. Presidents have enormous power not only to set the legislative agenda, but...

I'm angry and heartsick about what may happen in California on November 4th.

In the most personal way possible, I'm asking you for a favor: help us ensure that gay couples all across California keep their fundamental right to marriage — the basic right to be treated just like anybody...

We are on the eve of one of the most important presidential elections in history and turnout is expected to reach record highs. That’s the good news. The bad news is that there are far too many barriers blocking millions of Americans from exercising the right to vote, one of...

This week, a cynical and sniveling Congress handed President Bush a crowning jewel in his career-long attack on civil liberties in the form of the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 (FAA). As a result, the Fourth Amendment was essentially eviscerated.

The bill, which the president signed into law on...

On Thursday, I will be at Guantánamo Bay watching five men appear before a military commission as they hear the charges read against them. The charges are dire: the men are accused of participating in one of the worst and most tragic crimes of all time -- the September 11...

There are times in this country when we find ourselves at a crossroads - where the path we choose has the potential to define us as a nation for generations to come.

No doubt we've been at a critical juncture since September 11. How we respond to the atrocities...

It is deeply disturbing that the United States government intends to prosecute and seek the death penalty for six detainees held at Guantánamo Bay using a flawed and fundamentally unfair military commissions system. Those accused of planning the 9/11 attacks should be charged and brought to justice before a...

On Thursday, many of us will gather around the table for Thanksgiving dinner. If your family is anything like mine, people will gossip, they'll talk sports and, sooner or later, current events will crop up.

So, what do you do when Uncle Harry blurts out that he's been watching...

Torture is un-American, ineffective, and illegal. That hasn't stopped President Bush, but the next president would be wise to adopt policies that not only adhere to the rule of law and U.S. treaty obligations, but also the strong views of the vast majority of Americans. "America stands against and will...

Former Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales' reign in the Bush Justice Department is a sorry story that just won't end.

If you thought the scandals of the Gonzales Justice Department were a thing of the past, here comes today's extraordinary New York Times article revealing that the reality of...

ACLU staff members held a meeting yesterday with Justice Department officials regarding the expanded wiretapping power given to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales under the new warrantless spying law that was hastily passed by Congress before its recess and signed by President Bush two weekends ago. The meeting was...

A government of the people, for the people, and by the people can't survive if it is shrouded in secrecy from the people.

As the 110th Congress wrapped up its first session with every member raring to get away for August recess, the Bush administration bullied a Democratically- controlled Congress...

True American values won a victory yesterday, as a federal court struck down an anti-immigration ordinance in the town of Hazleton, Pennsylvania. All of us should welcome this rebuke to scapegoating and fearmongering in a town whose mayor sought to create, in his own words, "one of the most...