Good morning! The American Civil Liberties Union was established on this date in 1920, and in 1981, just 20 minutes after Ronald Reagan took the oath of office, Iran released 52 Americans who in November 1979 had been taken hostage at the US embassy in Tehran.

Stat of the day: 48 percent — the share of the world’s wealth held by the top 1 percent, according to Oxfam International, up from 44 percent since 2009. If current trends continue, the wealthiest 1 percent will hold more wealth than the rest of humanity by the end of next year.

Just what the terrorists wanted –> AFP reports that “the number of anti-Muslim incidents in France has soared since the Islamist attacks in Paris two weeks ago.” AND: French authorities have arrested a 16-year-old boy for a Facebook post that included an image mocking a past cover of Charlie Hebdo. It’s one of a number of cases involving young people, and Ali Abunimah writes at Electronic Intifada that there appears to be an emerging pattern “where minor encounters with police – with drunks and youths – quickly escalate into ‘terrorism’-related accusations.” ALSO: At Quartz, Emma-Kate Symons takes the NYT to task for running an anti-immigrant op-ed by Marine Le Pen without noting that she is “a far right party boss, nor explaining her movement’s long history of Muslim-baiting, incitement to racial hatred, Holocaust denial, and generalized anti-foreigner bile.”

You may be a terrorist –> Alex Kane writes at VICE that “the NYPD is unleashing its counterterrorism tools on activists against police brutality, conflating legitimate protest with the threat of terrorism.”

“Your concern about communism is understandable” –> Bloomberg’s Dave Weigel looks at some 50-year-old correspondence between the FBI and Americans who despised Martin Luther King, Jr.

One Term Tom  –> Billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer is considering a run to replace Barbara Boxer in the US Senate. Christopher Cadelago reports for the Sacramento Bee that Steyer is promising that if he runs and wins, he will serve only “one term if he can’t reach goals dealing with the environment, economy and education within six years.”

“Wide but shallow” –> WaPo’s Aaron Blake looks at a new poll which finds that “support for [the Keystone XL pipeline] is softer — and less urgent — than previously thought.”

Speaking of public opinion… –> Barack Obama’s approval ratings have been on the rebound — in many polls, he’s in positive territory for the first time since shortly after the 2012 election. At the NYT, Nate Cohn says the trend should hold if the economy continues to improve, and explains what a boost in Obama’s popularity may portend for the 2016 election.

Jeb –> There are many interesting tidbits in Alec MacGillis’ New Yorker profile of Jeb Bush. Among them: it wasn’t so long ago that the Bush everyone now sees as a moderate “embraced the ascendant right-wing orthodoxy: he declared himself a ‘head-banging conservative;’ vowed to ‘club this government into submission;’ and warned that ‘we are transforming our society to a collectivist policy.'”

Ideology over good governance –> Several “red” states that refused Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion are “finding a way to say yes, but only if they can claim a conservative twist on expanding coverage,” writes David Ramsey at TNR. The problem is that these alternative schemes have so far proved to be more complicated and expensive than expanding coverage through the existing system.

Gazing into the crystal ball –> At The Week, legal scholar Scott Lemieux offers his best guess as to how each Supreme Court justice will vote on same-sex marriage this term.

“Prematurely killing diplomacy” –> A Washington Post editorial endorsing a congressional bill that calls for more sanctions against Iran has its facts skewed, Ali Gharib writes at LobeLog. Given how high the stakes are, he says, the paper owes its readers a more accurate view of the debate.

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