Sen. Reid Finally Pulls Up His Civil Liberties Score

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Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, not that long ago, had a high ACLU score of 44%, and his score has been even as low as 40%, not very fitting for the supposedly liberal wing of the Senate. In the latest ACLU compilation, however, Reid scores 67%, a significant improvement, though nothing to brag about.

In the spring of 2006, Reid voted for the reauthorization of the Patriot Act. And last summer, he voted for the flag desecration amendment and for the Child Custody Protection Act, which would make it a crime for anyone other than a parent to accompany a minor across a state line to obtain an abortion. He scored better in the areas of judicial protection for detainees, the Military Commissions Act, voting rights reauthorization, the Federal Marriage Amendment, new worker database privacy protection, the Alito confirmation, and in the Patriot Act reauthorization cloture vote.

The highest current civil liberties scores in the Senate go to Sen. Tom Harkin, former Sen. Jon Corzine, Sen. Jeff Bingamin, Sen. Patrick Leahy, Sen. Russell Feingold, all of whom scored 100%.

The lowest scores go to Sen. Jeff Sessions, Sen. Wayne Allard, Sen. Pat Roberts, Sen. Thad Cochran, Sen. Tom Coburn, Sen. James Inhofe, and Sen. John Cornyn, all of whom scored 8%.

Scores of interest:

Sen. Hillary Clinton–83%
Sen. Barack Obama–83%
Sen. John McCain–33%
Sen. Sam Brownback–25%
Sen. Chuck Hagel–36%

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In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

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