On January 20, With the Stroke of a Pen, President Obama Can Undo Some of the Damage of the Past Eight Years

In preparation for the transition to a new presidential administration next year, I asked my staff to look at what a new president could do to begin to reverse the damage that has been done in the past eight years to this great nation. What I got back -- from experts on a wide variety of subjects from throughout the ACLU -- was very revealing. And it brought home just how off-track our presidential campaigns have become.

As you can see here, some of the items were self evident for us: stop torture, close Guantanamo, shut down the military commissions, end "extraordinary renditions" in which suspects are kidnapped by the CIA and sent to countries where they are tortured. All of these practices are abominations -- violations of our nation's dearest principles and a blotch on America's good name. Those are actions the next president, whoever he turns out to be, should take on his first day in office....