The ACLU and the New Administration

[annabanana]

http://www.aclu.org/transition /

The next president will become chief executive of a nation that has been greatly weakened - in particular, our freedoms, our values, and our international reputation have been greatly undermined by the policies of the past eight years.

Presidents have enormous power not only to set the legislative agenda, but also to establish policy by executive order, federal regulation, or simply by refocusing the efforts and emphases of the executive agencies. The new president must use all of these tools to restore our freedoms and move the country forward.

Doing so will require determined action in the face of inevitable opposition. It will require conveying to the American people why grants of unchecked power do not actually make us safer, and why Americans must stand firm in protecting the values that at our best we have always represented and defended at home and around the world.

It will not be easy to undo eight years of sustained damage to our fundamental rights. But it can be done.

This paper lists many of the actions that the new president should take in order to decisively signal a restoration of American values and a rejection of the shameful policies of the past eight years.

The first year of any new administration is crucial and sets the stage for what will follow. The new President needs to hit the ground running and to make full use of that first crucial year.

We have grouped needed actions into those that the new president should take on day one, in the 100 days and then the first year. Those actions include executive orders as well as mandates or directives from the president to his cabinet secretaries and agency heads
..more..

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contents:

PART 1 - DAY ONE
Stop Torture and Abuse
Close Guantanamo and Restore the Rule of Law for Detainees
End and Prohibit the Practice of Extraordinary Rendition

PART 2 -
FIRST 100 DAYS
1. Warrantless spying.
2. Watch lists.
3. Freedom of Information - Ashcroft Doctrine.
4. Monitoring of activists.
5. DOJ's Civil Rights Division.
6. Real ID Act.
7. Abortion gag rule.
8. Ban all workplace discrimination against sexual minorities by the federal government and its contractors.
9. Death penalty.
10. "Faith-based initiatives."

PART 3 - FIRST YEAR RECOMMENDATIONS
Torture and Abuse
Guantanamo
Extraordinary Rendition
Spying on Americans
Monitoring of activists
Real ID Act
Watch lists
Financial watch lists
Employee databases
Secure Flight
Harmonize privacy rules
Civil Liberties Oversight Board
DNA databases
Freedom of Information
FOIA ombudsman
Scientific freedom
Signing statements
Presidential documents
Federal websites
DOJ politicization
Overclassification
Death penalty
Human rights treaties
Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties
'Special Administrative Measures' for prisoners
Prisoner communications
Crack/Powder Sentencing
Medical marijuana
Discrimination against sexual minorities with federal dollars
The Civil Rights Division
Other Agencies' Civil Rights Enforcement
Federal Racial Profiling
Affirmative action
Rights of the disabled
School harassment based on sexual orientation and gender identity
Benefit plans covering domestic partners
Same-sex couples under Medicaid
Discrimination against sexual minorities in adoption and foster care
Discrimination By the Federal Government and Federal Contractors Against People with HIV
Political protest
Media Consolidation
Network neutrality
Online censorship of soldiers
Fleeting expletives
World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)
The faith-based initiative
Broaden the mandate of the Special Counsel for Religious Discrimination
Local immigration enforcement
Immigration raids
ID theft prosecutions
Deportation to nations that torture
Detention standards
Expedited removal
Board of Immigration Appeals
Single-sex education
Fair housing for domestic violence victims
Discrimination remedies
Home health care workers
Global gag rule on abortion
Abortion restrictions
Emergency contraceptives
Regulations on birth control and religious refusals
Abortion clinic violence
Affordable birth control
The shackling of pregnant prisoners

[xochi]

1. I'm sure President Obama already has his own working version of a list like this

but this is good--very comprehensive--and he would undoubtedly appreciate having it. You should send it to him. Right on!