ACLU - Little Known Or Forgotten Facts

The following are exerpts from ACLU ProCon.org. It shows conclusively, how the ACLU is founded on a self-defeating platform of communistic and socialistic reform. It also shows conclusively, that the ACLU has been it's own worst enemy and puts into perspective the turmoil this organization has wrought in the United States all in the name of "civil liberties". (But of course, this is nothing that the ACLU would care to admit).

Oct. 1, 1917 - The National Civil Liberties Bureau (NCLB) is established. (In Defense of American Liberties - A History of the ACLU, Samuel Walker, p. 20, Southern Illinois University Press (2nd ed. 1999.) Organized by Crystal Eastman and Roger Baldwin, the bureau was an offshoot of the American Union Against Militarism (AUAM), which since 1914 had led the opposition to America's entry into war. (In Defense of American Liberties - A History of the ACLU, Samuel Walker, p. 11, Southern Illinois University Press (2nd ed. 1999.)

Jan. 19, 1920 - The American Civil Liberties Union received its charter in New York. (American Civil Liberties Union. The Roger Baldwin Years 1917-1950, ACLU Archives, 1920-1950: A Microfilm Edition; Ben Primer, editor, Princeton University)

1934 - The ACLU "produced a statement entitled 'Shall We Defend Free Speech for Nazis in America?'" which defined ACLU's "policy on the issue of the rights of totalitarian groups." It stated notably that "if the ACLU 'condoned the denial of rights to Nazi propagandists, in what position would it be to champion the rights of others?'" (In Defense of American Liberties - A History of the ACLU, Samuel Walker, p.116, Southern Illinois University Press (2nd ed. 1999.)

1940 - "[M]embers elected during the first sixty years of the organization, almost eighty percent had Communist affiliations. A full ninety percent of the cases that [the ACLU] defended involved Communists. And as a result, it was stigmatized as a "Communist Front' organization itself." (Trial and Error - The American Civil Liberties Union and its Impact on Your Family, George Grant, p.63, Wolgemuth & Hyatt, Publishers, Inc. (1st. ed. 1989) "The [ACLU] board and the National Committee adopted a resolution barring from ACLU leadership positions anyone supporting totalitarianism." "Under the policy the board purged Elizabeth Gurley Flynn" who was an outspoken communist party member. (In Defense of American Liberties - A History of the ACLU, Samuel Walker, pp.131, 127, Southern Illinois University Press (2nd ed. 1999.) This "episode came to be viewed by many as the Union's most regrettable departure from its own principles." Inside the ACLU: Activism and Anti-Communism in the Late 1960s, Alan Rostron, p.426, New England Law Review (Vol. 33:2 Winter, 1999.)

1942 - With the internment of the Japanese during WWII the ACLU became divided over patriotism, loyalty, and fundamental rights. Amidst great controversy between the ACLU and its West Coast affiliate, the ACLU board adopted the "Seymour resolution" which stated notably that the ACLU "will not participate - except where the fundamentals of due process are denied - in cases where, after investigation, there are grounds for a belief that the defendant is cooperating with or acting on behalf of the enemy, even though the particular charge against the defendant might otherwise be appropriate for intervention by the ACLU" (In Defense of American Liberties - A History of the ACLU, Samuel Walker, p.157, Southern Illinois University Press (2nd ed. 1999.)

1943 - In Hirabayashi v. US, the U.S. Supreme Court sided with the government and against ACLU's claim that the internment of Japanese-Americans in the military zone were racially discriminatory, it held that "the power to wage war was 'power to wage war successfully,' extending 'to every matter and activity so related to war as substantially to affect its conduct and progress.'" (In Defense of American Liberties - A History of the ACLU, Samuel Walker, p.145, Southern Illinois University Press (2nd ed. 1999.)

1947 - In the "first" edition of the Patriot Act, President Truman's Executive Order 9835 created the Federal Loyalty Program which "allowed the government to deny employment to anyone when 'reasonable grounds exist for belief that the person involved is disloyal to the Government of the United States." An ambivalent ACLU decided to challenge the program through "quiet lobbying and court tests" and offered "free legal assistance to federal employees charged with being disloyal" under the program. (In Defense of American Liberties - A History of the ACLU, Samuel Walker, pp.176-178, Southern Illinois University Press (2nd ed. 1999.)

1950 - Roger Baldwin retired as Executive Director of the ACLU after 30 years. He was replaced by Patrick Murphy Malin. (In Defense of American Liberties - A History of the ACLU, Samuel Walker, p.205, Southern Illinois University Press (2nd ed. 1999.) With American Communications Association v. Douds, the ACLU unsuccessfully challenged on First Amendment ground the "Taft-Hartley Act oath, denying protection of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to any union whose leaders failed to file a non-Communist affidavit." (In Defense of American Liberties - A History of the ACLU, Samuel Walker, p.189, Southern Illinois University Press (2nd ed. 1999.)

1957 - The ACLU was involved in two cases in which "the Supreme Court struck at a broad range of cold war measures." Yates v. U.S., which "drastically limited the Smith Act by overturning the convictions of the 'second tier' of the communist party leadership, and Watkins v. U.S., in which the Supreme Court held that "congressional investigative power was not unlimited, that HUAC's mandate was 'loosely worded.'" (In Defense of American Liberties - A History of the ACLU, Samuel Walker, pp.242-243, Southern Illinois University Press (2nd ed. 1999.)

1959 - "The ACLU made one of its most significant contributions to the civil rights movement in the area of police misconduct." It published Secret Detention by the Chicago Police which was "the first systematic study ever made of frequency of lengthy secret detentions by a municipal police force." It "had a direct influence on the three most controversial Supreme Court cases dealing with the police in the 1960s" namely Mapp v. Ohio; Escobedo v. Illinois and Miranda v. Arizona. (In Defense of American Liberties - A History of the ACLU, Samuel Walker, pp.246, 249, Southern Illinois University Press (2nd ed. 1999.)

1961 - "The ACLU was in the forefront of all the crises of the sixties." It represented students arrested for demonstrating or for "sit-ins" in and off-campus in Tallahassee, New Orleans, Virginia, Alabama, Kentucky and Texas. "The 'sit-ins' posed new questions about the boundaries of freedom of speech. The ACLU's conclusion that "sit-ins" were protected by the First Amendment represented an "important step in the ACLU's identification with militant sixties protests." (In Defense of American Liberties - A History of the ACLU, Samuel Walker, pp. 262-263, Southern Illinois University Press (2nd ed. 1999.)

1962 - In Engel v. Vitale, the Supreme Court sided with the New York ACLU and found "the nondenominational prayer a religious activity 'wholly inconsistent' with the First Amendment." It held that "the decision did not imply hostility to religion and that it specifically exempted from the decision references to God in government ceremonies." (In Defense of American Liberties - A History of the ACLU, Samuel Walker, p. 224, Southern Illinois University Press (2nd ed. 1999.)

1963 - In Abington School District v. Schempp and Murray v. Curlett, the ACLU challenged the Bible reading law. The Supreme Court ruled the law unconstitutional and "reaffirmed its view that the government" should be "firmly committed to a position of neutrality." "The Court's decisions also encouraged more activity by the ACLU and its allies. (...) [I]n a subtle but important shift the ACLU's role increasingly became that of a watchdog fighting for implementation of civil liberties principles that were now a matter of law." (In Defense of American Liberties - A History of the ACLU, Samuel Walker, pp. 224, 226, Southern Illinois University Press (2nd ed. 1999.) "As a result, according to Richard and Susan Vigilante, they have effectively reduced 'the place of religion in American life' and have restricted religious speech 'in a way they would never allow other forms of speech to be restricted.'" (Trial and Error - The American Civil Liberties Union and its Impact on Your Family, George Grant, p.70, Wolgemuth & Hyatt, Publishers, Inc. (1st. ed. 1989)

1965 - The ACLU won an important victory in its attempt to redefine "conscientious objection" when the Supreme Court's decision in U.S. v. Seeger, "extended the right of conscientious objection to people who did not necessarily believe in 'supreme being' but whose beliefs paralleled those of conventional religion." (In Defense of American Liberties - A History of the ACLU, Samuel Walker, p. 281, Southern Illinois University Press (2nd ed. 1999.)

1968 - As the civil rights activists became more radical, the ACLU was split regarding its role in representing parties in civil disobedience cases. (In Defense of American Liberties - A History of the ACLU, Samuel Walker, p. 282, Southern Illinois University Press (2nd ed. 1999.) "The fierce storm of controversy centered around Vietnam. The activists saw critical civil liberties issues presented by American involvement in the war, while moderates feared transformation of the Union from a nonpolitical civil liberties group to a partisan anti-war organization. The activists ultimately prevailed, but the debate raged for several years until the Union's moderate faction finally disintegrated." (Inside the ACLU: Activism and Anti-Communism in the Late 1960s, Alan Rostron, p.426, New England Law Review (Vol. 33:2 Winter, 1999.) "The dispute came to a head in January 1968 when the justice Department indicted Dr. [Benjamin] Spock for organizing 'Stop the Draft Week.'" ACLU heatedly debated Dr. Spock's representation, ultimately deciding to side with him. "[N]eoconservative critics saw the Spock case as the point at which the ACLU abandoned civil liberties for a 'political' agenda." (In Defense of American Liberties - A History of the ACLU, Samuel Walker, pp. 283-285, Southern Illinois University Press (2nd ed. 1999.)

1969 - Tinker v. Des Moines School District, "opened up a new body of constitutional law involving the rights of students." The ACLU represented three students who wore a black armband to school to protest the war in Vietnam. The Supreme Court held that "it can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate." (In Defense of American Liberties - A History of the ACLU, Samuel Walker, p. 280, Southern Illinois University Press (2nd ed. 1999.) In Street v. New York, the Supreme Court held that flag burning was protected symbolic speech, and that Street, who was represented by the NYCLU, "did not urge anyone to do anything unlawful" but was engaged in "excited public advocacy." (In Defense of American Liberties - A History of the ACLU, Samuel Walker, p. 280, Southern Illinois University Press (2nd ed. 1999.) Later on, in Brandenburg v. Ohio, the Court agreeing with the ACLU's "view of the First Amendment," "effectively abolished the clear and present danger test, invalidating the Smith Act and all state sedition laws restricting radical political groups." The court held that "the First Amendment protected advocacy, even of the necessity of violent action." Brandenburg, a KKK member, had been convicted for threatening the government in a speech. (In Defense of American Liberties - A History of the ACLU, Samuel Walker, p. 281, Southern Illinois University Press (2nd ed. 1999.)

1970 - "Aryeh Neier's appointment (...) as the ACLU's executive director marked the advent of the 'new' ACLU. [He] consolidated what had been developing over the past five years: the new civil liberties issues, direct legal representation, and grant-funded special projects." "Neier wasted no time transforming the ACLU." He organized and had the ACLU present "eleven separate projects" to foundations which were eventually all "funded and incorporated into the renamed ACLU Foundation. (...) The Prisoners' Rights Project, the Reproductive Freedom Project, and the Voter Rights Project became the centers of legal expertise on their respective subjects." In addition "Neier created a series of ACLU handbooks" and "established The Civil Liberties Review for serious discussions of civil liberties issues," which was "canceled in 1978 , because of a financial crisis in the ACLU." (In Defense of American Liberties - A History of the ACLU, Samuel Walker, pp. 314-316, Southern Illinois University Press (2nd ed. 1999.)The ACLU's opposition to tax exemptions for churches in Walz v. Tax Commission "marked the dominance of absolutist thinking in the ACLU. In years to come, critics would cite Walz and the defense of child pornography as evidence of the ACLU's utter lack of reasonableness." (In Defense of American Liberties - A History of the ACLU, Samuel Walker, pp. 319-320, Southern Illinois University Press (2nd ed. 1999.)

1971 - "[T]he ACLU's expanded activities evoked serious criticism." Although, Yale law professor Joesph W. Bishop "recognized the ACLU's sustained impact on the law. (...) His primary complaint was that the ACLU had abandoned its traditional role and had embarked on a purely partisan campaign, citing the ACLU's defense of Dr. Spock as the turning point. Bishop saw it not as a free speech case, but as a political attack on the war. His charge that the ACLU adopted a 'political agenda' in the late 1960s (...) became a standard neoconservative criticism." "In reaction to Griswold and Roe, conservative legal scholars challenged judicial activism with a new theory of judicial restraint, 'orginal intent.' That is, the only principled basis for constitutional decision making was the framers' intent. (...) The ACLU replied that the Constitution was a living document that had to be interpreted in the light of new circumstances." "Another line of criticism held that the ACLU had pressed traditional civil liberties too far." "Neoconservatives expressed a moral revulsion at the collapse of restraints, (which occurred because of 'ACLU's long crusade against censorship') and now argued that excessive liberty itself was the problem." (In Defense of American Liberties - A History of the ACLU, Samuel Walker, pp. 317-319, Southern Illinois University Press (2nd ed. 1999.)The ACLU "defined women's rights as its 'top priority,' creating the Women's Rights Project. The key figure in the ACLU's campaign was law professor Ruth Bader Ginsburg." She wrote, with two other counsels, the ACLU brief in Reed v. Reed, "the breakthrough women's rights case in the Supreme Court." The case "challenged the automatic preference for men over women as administrators of estates, with Ginsburg contending that this violated the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment." The Supreme Court only partially agreed with the ACLU and held that "gender was not a 'suspect classification" demanding the same 'strict scrutiny' by the courts as race did." (NOTE: This is the same Ruth Bader Ginsburg who was Clinton's nomination to and was seated on the Supreme Court as a justice in 1993). (In Defense of American Liberties - A History of the ACLU, Samuel Walker, p. 304, Southern Illinois University Press (2nd ed. 1999.)

1973 - "With the ACLU's litigation program expanded, the conservative drift of the Burger Court was a source of great anxiety. In March 1973 the ACLU brought one hundred staff and volunteer lawyers to Chicago to plan an effective response, the first such conference in ACLU history." ACLU's success rate [in the U.S. Supreme Court] declined (...) falling from an extarodinary 90 percent in the 1968-1969 term to only 52 percent in 1970-1971." (In Defense of American Liberties - A History of the ACLU, Samuel Walker, p. 316, Southern Illinois University Press (2nd ed. 1999.)Ruth Bader Ginsburg argued "Frontiero v. Richardson for the ACLU in an amicus brief. In this case "the Supreme Court ended a U.S. military policy that gave the husbands of servicewomen an automatic dependency, whereas the wives of servicemen had to meet a dependency test." (In Defense of American Liberties - A History of the ACLU, Samuel Walker, p. 305, Southern Illinois University Press (2nd ed. 1999.) The ACLU placed a full page ad in the New York Times calling for President Nixon's impeachment. The ad "asked readers to write their representatives in Congress, make a contribution to the ACLU, and join if not already a member." The response was overwhelming and "[o]ver 25,000 new members joined in 1973 alone, driving the ACLU's membership to an all-time high of 275,000." (In Defense of American Liberties - A History of the ACLU, Samuel Walker, p. 294, Southern Illinois University Press (2nd ed. 1999.) "When the Watergate scandal became a major issue in 1973, only a few dissenting voices remained to argue that seeking the impeachment of President Nixon was a political enterprise beyond the ACLU's proper sphere of concerns." (Inside the ACLU: Activism and Anti-Communism in the Late 1960s, Alan Rostron, p.427, New England Law Review (Vol. 33:2 Winter, 1999.)

1977 - The "ACLU women's caucus (...) won adoption of an official ACLU affirmative action plan." "The concept of affirmative action proved to be a divisive issue both in national politics and within the ACLU." The ACLU endorsed "a racial quota for the University of California medical school (...) Neoconservatives (...) argued that the use of a racial classification, for whatever purpose, represented an unconstitutional form of reverse discrimination." (In Defense of American Liberties - A History of the ACLU, Samuel Walker, pp. 305-306, Southern Illinois University Press (2nd ed. 1999.) "The result of this 'discrimination to spite discrimination' approach to social and economic affairs has proven to be disastrous. Innumerable studies have shown that preferential entitlements actually debilitate and impoverish minorities -creating disincentives to advancement and engendering an artificial indolence." (Trial and Error - The American Civil Liberties Union and its Impact on Your Family, George Grant, p.44, Wolgemuth & Hyatt, Publishers, Inc. (1st. ed. 1989) The FBI releases its files on the ACLU. They reveal that "several ACLU leaders had sought information about ACLU members from the FBI and, worse, had given the FBI information about the organization and individuals." (In Defense of American Liberties - A History of the ACLU, Samuel Walker, p. 333, Southern Illinois University Press (2nd ed. 1999.)

1978 - "In response to an (...) inquiry from one woman" regarding South Carolina's sterilization of women on public assistance, Edna Smith Primus, an ACLU cooperating attorney "sent a letter saying the ACLU 'would like to file a lawsuit on your behalf for money against the doctor who performed the operation.'" Primus was reprimanded by the state Supreme Court for "improper solicitation." On appeal, in In re Primus, the Supreme Court "acknowledged the special role of the ACLU" and "ruled that Primus's actions did not constitute unethical, in-person solicitation. The court distinguished between lawyers who solicit cases 'for pecuniary gains' and those who solicit to 'further political and ideological goals through associational activity.'" (In Defense of American Liberties - A History of the ACLU, Samuel Walker, p. 340, Southern Illinois University Press (2nd ed. 1999.) "And considering the fact that the ACLU no longer has to take many of its cases before the bench - its influence is so great that even a threat of a lawsuit is often enough to change policies, reshape legislation, and redirect priorities in case after case - those achievements are even more remarkable." (Trial and Error - The American Civil Liberties Union and its Impact on Your Family, George Grant, p.28, Wolgemuth & Hyatt, Publishers, Inc. (1st. ed. 1989) "The victory for the First Amendment (in Skokie) had extracted an enormous price, however, as the loss of members and contributions plunged the ACLU into debt - nearly $500,000 by 1978." "Faced with imminent financial collapse, the board appointed Jay Miller to head an emergency development campaign. (...) The turning point was a fund-raising letter signed by David Goldberg" the ACLU attorney in the Skokie case asking for $20 contributions. "The Goldberger letter, as it came to be known, was spectacular success; over 25,000 people contributed $550,000." (In Defense of American Liberties - A History of the ACLU, Samuel Walker, p. 329, Southern Illinois University Press (2nd ed. 1999.) ACLU Executive Director Neier resigned and was replaced by Ira Glasser "one of the veterans of the 1960s." He "brought in longtime ACLU staffer Florence Isbell to straighten out the membership department (...) and Carol Pitchersky, (...) as development director to create an ongoing program of soliciting tax-deductible contributions. Her operation was a phenomenal success. Contributions rose from less than $300,000 in 1977 to over $3 million in 1988." (In Defense of American Liberties - A History of the ACLU, Samuel Walker, pp. 336-338, Southern Illinois University Press (2nd ed. 1999.) "The financial crisis passed, but damage to the ACLU's reputation was more permanent. By alienating those of its leaders who resisted the activist expansion, the Union lost a vital moderating element. While conservatives had long accused the ACLU of supporting communism and atheism, a new and more sophisticated line of criticism emerged. The Union came to be perceived by many - even former friends - as a partisan special interest group with an agenda of liberal causes, rather than as a neutral defender of the Bill of Rights." (Inside the ACLU: Activism and Anti-Communism in the Late 1960s, Alan Rostron, p.427, New England Law Review (Vol. 33:2 Winter, 1999.)

Of course, there is much more to the on-going saga of the ACLU and life as we used to know it. A couple of other little known facts I'll leave you with is:

1999 - “In 1978, the national ACLU's annual income was $3.9 million and the organization ran a small deficit. By 1999, annual income was an off-the-charts $45 million. The endowment fund has gone from $780,000 to a whopping $41 million. ” (ACLU National Director Retires for Much More Freedom, Robyn E. Blumner, St. Petersburg Times, Aug. 3, 2000)

2001 - “Anthony D. Romero is the sixth executive director of the 81-year-old American Civil Liberties Union. He became the first Latino and first openly gay man to take the helm of the [ACLU] when he started his new position in September 2001.” (Biography of Anthony D. Romero, ACLU website, 2001)

This is cross posted at Stop The ACLU - Oklahoma . Oklahoman's it is time to get involved and start fighting against the ACLU with us. We need your help to stop the ACLU's continued attack on the moral integrity and religious values which so many of us here in the Midwest believe in. Please join us in our fight.