ACLU Faults President Carter’s Civil Liberties Record During His First Six Months
On this day, the ACLU accused President Jimmy Carter of “a poor civil liberties record” during his first six months in office.
The ACLU accused the president of failing to exercise leadership and stand up to Congressional threats to civil liberties. In the national security area, it continued, Carter had abandoned the critical positions he took as a candidate and no longer supported strong controls over the intelligence agencies.
On the positive side, it praised his policies on amnesty for Vietnam War protesters, school desegregation, freedom of information, voter registration and human rights. Carter deserves credit for introducing human rights as an issue in American foreign policy. He had a fairly good record on appointing African Americans and women to the courts. He spoke out in opposition to discrimination against homosexuals, the first president to do so. He introduced a charter to govern the F.B.I., the first-ever such document related to holding the F.B.I. accountable, but it was not accepted. He nominated Judge Frank M. Johnson, a great civil libertarian, but Johnson had to withdraw because of a serious illness. He appointed Sarah Weddington, attorney in the historic Roe v. Wade case, as counsel to the president.
In retrospect, compared with Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford who preceded him (1969–1977) and Ronald Reagan who followed him (1981–1989), President Carter’s record on civil liberties looks far better than this early ACLU report indicated.
On President Carter’s civil liberties record, read: Samuel Walker, Presidents and Civil Liberties From Obama to Wilson (2012)
Read the new biography of Jimmy Carter: Kai Bird, The Unfinished Presidency of Jimmy Carter (2021)
Learn more about Carter’s post-presidential work at the Carter Center: http://www.cartercenter.org/index.html