The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) would like to thank the United StatesSentencing Commission for this opportunity to help the Commission formulaterecommendations to Congress regarding changes in federal sentencing law. Today, wecommend the Commission for its past extensive efforts calling on Congress to amend statutescreating the unjust disparity between crack and powder cocaine sentencing. We wholeheartedlyagree with this body’s 2004 conclusion that “[r]evising the crack cocaine thresholds” would domore to reduce the sentencing gap “than any other single policy change, and it woulddramatically improve the fairness of the federal sentencing system.”1 Moreover, we commendthe Commission for the 2007 retroactive amendments making the Guidelines more consistentwith statutory mandatory minimums, and creating eligibility for approximately 19,500 prisonersto be properly re-sentenced in accordance with the law. We hope that this body will continue tochampion and recommend change—specifically, we urge the Commission to remind Congress ofthe continued, urgent need to amend a sentencing scheme which unjustifiably metes outdisparately harsh punishments to African Americans in violation of basic fairness.