Sen. Patrick J. Leahy was honored as Vermont civil libertarian of the year at Saturday’s annual meeting of the ACLU of Vermont.
“No one in the U.S. Congress has done more than Sen. Leahy to uphold the freedoms of the Bill of Rights and to restore the rule of law,” the ACLU said in the citation for the David Curtis Civil Liberties Award presented to Leahy.
Accepting the award on Leahy’s behalf was staff member Susan Sussman. Leahy was out of town and could not attend Saturday’s meeting -- although he very much wanted to, Sussman said.
Allen Gilbert, ACLU executive director, noted that Leahy was the recipient of the award when it was first given 25 years ago. Of the award given this year, Gilbert said, “Leahy has shown how outrage at misuse of power can be channeled through a legislative process to focus on substantive change.”
This was the ACLU’s 40th anniversary, and the event was marked by a special panel of founders and longtime members who looked back at four decades of civil rights work in the state.
Former Gov. Philip Hoff, who was ACLU “state correspondent” before the Vermont group was officially formed, said that “The most essential element of a society is civil rights.” He criticized the policies of the Bush administration. “They scare the hell out of me,” he said bluntly, ticking off suspension of habeas corpus rights, approval of torture in interrogations, and continued operation of the Guantanamo prison in Cuba.
Attorney Peter Langrock spoke of how, as a young lawyer, he was impressed by the commitment Hoff had to individual rights and social justice. That commitment translated into many things, including helping to found the ACLU affiliate in Vermont, he said.
Also on hand Saturday was Rep. Peter Welch. He attended to present a fundraising award to his step-daughter, Beth Danon of Burlington. Welch, who has been an ACLU cooperating attorney, said in general remarks to the group that fear is driving decisions in Washington.
Welch lamented the passage in August of an extension of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that gave the attorney general -- Alberto Gonzales at the time -- the authority to wiretap phone calls and intercept e-mail. Such authority was unwarranted, Welch said, especially when Gonzales himself was being questioned about abuse of power in Department of Justice affairs.
In his report to the ACLU membership, Gilbert spoke of the ongoing issue of telecommunications surveillance, saying it offered a “window into how deep the stain of abuse of power goes.” He compared efforts at preventing investigations into the surveillance to Watergate-era cover-ups. “But, just as with Watergate, unseemly details are starting to leak out,” he said.
Gilbert noted that the national intelligence director has confirmed that telecommunications companies have handed over phone records to the NSA; that the Bush administration is seeking immunity for any illegal actions the NSA and the companies may have taken; that evidence of government retribution against a company that wouldn’t collaborate with the NSA has been given in an insider-trading trial in Denver; and that Verizon has said it turned over customer phone records hundreds of times since 2005 to federal authorities -- without court orders.
A hearing on FISA and citizens’ privacy has been scheduled for Wednesday before Leahy’s Senate Judiciary Committee in Washington, Gilbert noted.
Other awards given at Saturday’s meeting, and recipients, were the Jonathan B. Chase Cooperating Attorney Award to Roger Kohn of Hinesburg and the Timmy Bourne Award for volunteer service to Geoff Brumbaugh of Montpelier.
Also serving on the 40th anniversary panel with Hoff and Langrock were Betty Clark of Rutland, Sandra Dooley of South Burlington, Pamela Kraynak of Burlington, and David Putter of Montpelier.
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