Wendy Kaminer, in the Wall Street Journal, also reveals that the ACLU is now accepting the Hard Left notion that mere speech can inflict harm, even if one does not call someone pigeon pie and eat him up.
The American Civil Liberties Union has explicitly endorsed the view that free speech can harm “marginalized†groups by undermining their civil rights. “Speech that denigrates such groups can inflict serious harms and is intended to and often will impede progress toward equality,†the ACLU declares in new guidelines governing case selection and “Conflicts Between Competing Values or Priorities.â€
This is presented as an explanation rather than a change of policy, and free-speech advocates know the ACLU has already lost its zeal for vigorously defending the speech it hates. ACLU leaders previously avoided acknowledging that retreat, however, in the apparent hope of preserving its reputation as the nation’s premier champion of the First Amendment.
But traditional free-speech values do not appeal to the ACLU’s increasingly partisan progressive constituency—especially after the 2017 white-supremacist rally in Charlottesville. The Virginia ACLU affiliate rightly represented the rally’s organizers when the city attempted to deny them a permit to assemble. Responding to intense post-Charlottesville criticism, last year the ACLU reconsidered its obligation to represent white-supremacist protesters.
The 2018 guidelines claim that “the ACLU is committed to defending speech rights without regard to whether the views expressed are consistent with or opposed to the ACLU’s core values, priorities and goals.†But directly contradicting that assertion, they also cite as a reason to decline taking a free-speech case “the extent to which the speech may assist in advancing the goals of white supremacists or others whose views are contrary to our values.â€
In selecting speech cases to defend, the ACLU will now balance the “impact of the proposed speech and the impact of its suppression.†Factors like the potential effect of the speech on “marginalized communities†and even on “the ACLU’s credibility†could militate against taking a case. Fundraising and communications officials helped formulate the new guidelines.
GoneWithTheWind
The ACLU was founded by communists and pro-communists and the open intent was to use our own laws to help bring us down. Still today most ACLU lawyers are openly anti-American, anti-constitution and anti-Democratic. It is heavily staffed with communist. Ironically (for a organization with the word “American” in it’s name) it attracts recent immigrants who have acquired law degrees and almost all of them use their position at the ACLU to harm the country. I think there was a time, perhaps in the 60’s, when some “rogue” ACLU lawyers did good things but those days are long gone.
Spurt Reynolds
So now the ACLU gets to be bigoted and racist in terms of who has the right to free speech.
Looks like they will be replaced rather quickly as people figure this out.
They now have become Nazi’s themselves.
Funny how the Libtards always wind up taking over organizations like Green Peace, Southern Poverty Law Center, etc.
Seattle Sam
Why is the American Criminal Liars Union afforded any respect at all?
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