American Civil Liberties Union

On behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and its hundreds of thousands of members, activists, and fifty-three affiliates nationwide, we submit these comments pursuant to the U.S. Sentencing Commission’s request for public comments, as noticed in the Federal Register in July 2007, relating to its proposed amendment to the crack sentencing guidelines. Amendment 9, which pertains to crack offenses, has the effect of lowering the guideline sentencing range for certain categories of offenses and offenders. We write in support of the Commission’s proposal that to make Amendment 9 retroactive to sentenced defendants.