One of the wonderful things about genuine civil liberties groups is that they sometimes — okay, rarely — surprise you by standing up and taking principled stands that differ from the liberal conventional wisdom. So we cheered when across the fax machine yesterday came a release from the New York Civil Liberties Union standing up for that most unpopular of all groups these days, accused white-collar criminals. In a letter to the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, James Comey, the NYCLU says the “perp walk” practice of federal authorities is in violation of the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition on unreasonable seizure. The NYCLU writes, “When a 78-year-old corporate executive, with no history of violence, offers to surrender to authorities and to appear voluntarily before a court but is, instead, physically arrested and manacled and paraded before an array of photographers such a practice seems plainly unjustified and unconstitutional.” The letter says that “Public humiliation within the community is, of course, a historic form of punishment. But, as you well appreciate, under our legal system, an accused individual is presumed to be innocent and any punishment to be imposed must follow conviction, not precede it.” A point for prosecutors to remember as they continue their crusade against corporate crime.