Failure to stop warrantless spying tops ACLU's 2007 'worst of ' list 
Relaxed sentencing requirements, Senate fight against telecom immunity mark year's high points, says rights group
Year-end 'best and worst' lists are always a media mainstay, and now the American Civil Liberties Union is weighing in with a 2007 retrospective of its own: the top ten ways it says the US government has failed to ensure civil liberties.
"Forget the New Year’s 'in and out' lists," the group states in a press release. "In the ACLU’s list, the Constitution is always in."
Topping the list as the government's worst misstep, the ACLU says, was the the refusal by Congress to put an end to warrantless spying carried out by the National Security Agency.
"Congress instead has continued to let the NSA spy without warrants," states entry number one, "and is considering letting the telephone companies off the hook for spying on Americans illegally."
Snagging the number two spot was lawmakers' failure to repeal the Military Commissions Act, which allows detainees held at the US military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to be tried by military tribunals rather than in civilian courts. The government's unwillingness to shut Guantanamo down altogether came in at number three.
"If we’ve learned anything in 2007, it's that a change in leadership doesn’t necessarily mean anyone will actually lead," the director of the ACLU Washington legislative office, Caroline Fredrickson, told RAW STORY by email."Congress has not done very much this year. We had hoped that this Congress would restore the rights that have been disappearing for the last seven years, but that wasn’t what happened."
Other alleged civil liberties incursions cited by the group include "not giving due process to immigrants" in detention facilities, and allowing the CIA to destroy its videotapes depicting severe interrogations of terrorists suspects.
On an optimistic note for the new year, however, the ACLU also released a companion list of reasons that Americans should still cling to faith in their government.
"It’s not all bad news," Fredrickson said. "A few senators took a stand against warrantless NSA spying and put the brake on efforts to let telephone companies off the hook for helping the government commit crimes." She also had praise for lawmakers that voted to "fix the Military Commissions Act."
Added Fredrickson, "We hope Congress will show more leadership next year and act as the administration’s equal, not as a new part of the cabinet."
The top five selections from the ACLU's civil liberties "best of" list follow:
1. Real changes were made to start fixing the unfair sentencing disparities between crack and powder cocaine that disproportionately affect minorities. The U.S. Sentencing Commission changed its recommendations to be more just in sentencing for crack offenses, and it applied those changes retroactively.
2. Perhaps the biggest victory was the case Kimbrough v. U.S., in which the Supreme Court said judges were free to issue shorter prison sentences for crack cocaine offenses, bringing them closer to the sentences for powder cocaine. The ACLU wrote an amicus brief supporting departure from the guidelines.
3. Senators stood up to the Bush Administration’s push for permanent warrantless wiretapping authority and immunity for the telecoms. It was a historic moment. A group of senators stood up to warrantless wiretapping and immunity for telecommunications companies, shutting down the Senate Intelligence Committee’s power grab of a FISA reauthorization bill – for now.
4. A federal judge struck down the national security letter provision of the Patriot Act that allowed the FBI to collect personal data secretly without a judge’s authorization.
5. Senators voted against a $300 million Real ID funding bill. Although $50 million was eventually appropriated to Real ID in December, an amendment to the Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill this summer that would have given millions more money to the program failed.
Read the full listing of the ACLU's 'best and worst' of 2007 here.
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