American Civil Liberties Union

(Originally posted on HuffingtonPost.)

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 our most fundamental and precious rights. The last thing this country needs right now is another election that leaves us uncertain of its legitimacy. Unfortunately, there are enough shenanigans going on right now that there is serious reason to be concerned.

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 attacks. The sentence could be death.

There has been a lot of debate about how these men should be prosecuted. The answer is right in front of us. When our government wants to prove a defendant has committed a crime — even an egregious one — it must ensure that when the final gavel comes down, we can walk away with some assurance that, whether we agree with it or not, the outcome is legitimate. To ensure that legitimacy, the government follows the Constitution. It provides defendants with the right to a lawyer, the presumption of innocence, and due process. It collects its evidence and fights like hell to prove its case "beyond a reasonable doubt" in a court of law, and allows the accused to wage a meaningful defense. That's how we define American justice, it's what separates us from our enemies, and it's how the government should prosecute the detainees at Guantánamo. We do not change the rules depending on who is being prosecuted and what they are accused of — that would defeat the whole purpose. But that is exactly what's happening with the Guantánamo military commissions.

Someone sent me this Colbert clip yesterday and I think it's spot-on about the so-called "compromise" that the Bush administration and a few

This afternoon, I attended the confirmation hearings on Judge John Roberts, President Bush’s nominee for chief justice of the Supreme Court. 

Also in the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing room were the leaders of most of the nation’s civil rights groups – Wade Henderson of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, Ralph Neas of People for the American Way, Debr