A critic wrote a letter-to-the-editor of one of the newspapers that carries my column and complained thusly: “She confuses my calm, rational thinking with facts.” Well, dear reader, here’s another column of “just the facts, ma’am.”
Since the American Civil Liberties Union has become so controversial this year, let’s review some of its policy statements. All the facts and quotes in this column are taken directly from its own 576-page official Policy Guide.
Policy 3 sets forth the rationalization for its peculiar leftwing double standard. It recognizes the “right of all to advance their points of view” while asserting the ACLU policy to oppose those who express their views through “private pressure group activities inimical to civil liberties” (which translated, of course, means inimical to ACLU policies).
Policy 4 opposes any restraint on “obscenity, pornography or indecency” even for distribution to children. This policy also opposes any restraint on the distribution of materials which have criminally used children in their production, taking the position that it is a civil liberties violation to punish porn retailers and exhibitors for “misjudging the age of a minor.”
Policy 47 makes clear that the ACLU’s devotion to civil liberties does not extend to the personal right to own a gun. Despite the Second Amendment, the ACLU lawyers claim that “the possession of weapons by individuals is not constitutionally protected.”
In Policy 60, the ACLU assets the right of a classroom teacher to discuss “controversial issues without the assumption that they are settled in advance or that there is only one ‘right’ answer.” The ACLU does not defend the civil liberty of a classroom teacher who asserts that many controversial issues have, indeed, been settled and there is only one right answer.
Policy 62 makes it clear whose civil liberties the ACLU will defend and whose it will not. The ACLU defends the right of public school personnel “to establish the curriculum,” but the ACLY absolutely rejects the right of parents, either individually or in groups, to have any decision-making role whatsoever.
Policies 75, 80 and 305 show how the ACLU wraps its leftwing policy positions in rhetoric about civil liberties. It approves forcing all citizens to finance the current monopoly public school system (in which all families are denied any choice in which school their children attend) and aggressively oppose all plans to accord parents a real choice, such as through vouchers or tuition tax credits.
In Policy 81, the ACLU opposes Christmas and other religious observances in schools or on public property. Policy 84 calls for removing the words “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag as unconstitutional.
In Policy 92, the ACLU urges taking away all tax exemptions from churches as “a clear and flagrant breach” of the First Amendment. Policy 88 urges the abolition of military chaplains.
The ACLU in Policy 211 calls for legalizing prostitution and terminating all state regulation of prostitution. In Policy 215 the ACLU supports legalizing the cultivation, possession, use and sale of marijuana.
The ACLU in Policy 239 flatly opposes the death penalty. Policy 242 says that “probation should be authorized in every case, exceptions to the principle are not favored, and any exceptions if made, should be limited to the most serious offenses, such as murder or treason.”
Policy 263 makes it clear that “civil liberties,” ACLU-style, means the “civil liberty” of a woman to kill her unborn baby “at any time,” but does not include the unborn baby’s right to life at any time.
Policy 264 is a detailed description of ACLU support for so-called gay rights proposals. The ACLU specifically supports giving marriage licenses to homosexual and lesbian couples in order “to qualify gay and lesbian couples for benefits and rights enjoyed by married persons,” such as child custody, foster parenthood, and employee, insurance and income tax benefits.
Policy 306 supports Affirmative Action including “the imposition of numerical remedies,” and Policy 315 endorses the trendy feminist proposal for wage-control called “comparable worth.” So much for the civil liberties of workers to be judged on their individual merit!
The ACLU claims that the controversy in the presidential campaign has been good for its membership drive. Maybe so, but it certainly hasn’t been good for its prestige among mainstream Americans.
