On Tuesday, the ACLU-NC participated in a press conference announcing the release of NC Stop Torture Now's Scorecard ranking the work of the Obama Administration addressing torture and extraordinary rendition. While the press conference was unfortunately not widely covered, the issues addressed and the scorecard itself should still weigh heavily on the hearts and minds of civil libertarians and all Americans. The prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment found in the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution is not a luxury only to be indulged in times of peace and prosperity.

Over the last nine years, the national ACLU has submitted a series of Public Records requests to various branches of the Federal government. The documents obtained through those public records requests give the American public a glimpse of the acts that the Federal Government authorized or committed in our name. Allegations of North Carolina company Aero Contractors' involvement in extraordinary rendition - when the U.S. government turns over detainees to other governments that they know torture in order to secure confessions or probably false information - also came to light. Due to the efforts of the ACLU-NC, along with partners like NC STN, Two years ago the North Carolina Sentencing and Policy Advisory Commission studied the crime of torture and wrote in their final report that the “people of North Carolina do not condone torture and it is contrary to who they are as Americans . . . [T]orture betrays American armed forces personnel who might become prisoners of war and be at risk of torture themselves.” Hopefully the Obama Administration agrees and stops dragging its feet on putting a stop to the policies and practices that have led to extraordinary rendition and torture and finally fully investigates the treatment of detainees over the last nine years. It is time to shine some light on this issue and hold those responsible accountable. It is time that America remembers that torture is wrong, always and everywhere.