This commentary is by Stephanie Gomory, communications director for the ACLU of Vermont. The ACLU of Vermont recently published its Civil Liberties Report Card, a pass/fail assessment of Gov. Phil Scott’s record on civil rights and civil liberties during his most recent term, 2023–2024. The assessment gives the governor a failing grade across several categories, including education, drug policy, criminal justice, police accountability, homelessness and economic justice.  As a nonpartisan government accountability organization, the ACLU has in the past applauded Gov. Scott’s actions when they advanced Vermonters’ civil liberties. Unfortunately, the governor’s record on civil rights and civil liberties during the 2023-24 biennium is profoundly disappointing, and we are increasingly troubled by his public policy choices regarding Vermonters’ rights and well-being. Among the civil liberties issues highlighted in the ACLU report:  Homelessness: In 2023, amid a historic housing crisis, the governor sought to forcibly un-shelter hundreds of Vermonters — children, families, seniors, and people with disabilities. This year, his administration has displaced scores of people while enacting cruel and arbitrary barriers to undermine the legislature’s emergency housing program and prevent people with disabilities and other vulnerable Vermonters from accessing shelter.  Drug Policy and Criminal Justice: While the number of people who have died of drug overdoses has increased dramatically during Scott’s term, he has consistently opposed harm reduction strategies that would save lives and improve community health and safety, while stoking fears about public safety in one of the safest states in the country. The governor has doubled down on the failed strategies of the past by supporting harsher criminal penalties for drug-related offenses and undermining historic “raise the age” reform passed by the legislature in 2018.  Education Equity: In the wake of the Supreme Court’s disastrous ruling in Carson v. Makin (2022), requiring that states that provide funding to private schools can no longer exclude religious schools from receiving public funds, the governor has offered no plan to limit the flow of public dollars to private schools that can undermine the common benefit of a public education for all of Vermont’s children.  Racial Justice and Police Accountability: The governor has taken no steps to address persistent racial profiling and racial disparities in the criminal legal system, which remain among the worst in the nation. His public safety “plan” announced in 2023 makes no mention of racial justice or police accountability. With the legislature unwilling or unable to advance police reform given the inevitability of a veto, the governor bears significant responsibility for Vermont’s lack of progress on racial justice and police accountability.  Economic Justice: In an era of historic wealth inequality, when our communities need new resources, the governor refuses to ask the wealthiest Vermonters to pay their fair share — making misleading statements about widely popular proposed taxes on corporations and the wealthy and claiming, without evidence or analysis, that affluent residents will flee the state. The governor even opposes a modest tax on corporations that would help to staff Vermont’s judiciary — a position squarely at odds with his stated interest in promoting public safety, and one that threatens to undermine a pillar of democratic government, our court system.  The ACLU values Vermont’s traditions of civil discourse and cooperation, particularly in this polarizing era, but they should not preclude any governor from facing scrutiny and accountability. We hope this assessment will provide the public with a fuller accounting of Gov. Scott’s actions and policy choices.  We urge Gov. Scott to recommit to protecting Vermonters’ civil liberties and join us in advancing a more positive vision for the state and its people.  Read the story on VTDigger here: Stephanie Gomory: On civil liberties, Gov. Scott gets a failing grade  .