I happen to agree, now don’t get your panties in an bunch just yet. I agree because it has historically fought the state to keep religion out of our schools, it has fought unfair and unprincipled laws that infringed on the rights of the citizenry of our great country. ACLU has one, just one function, to protect the Constitution of the United States of America and in particular the first ten amendments of the Constitution. I have such a difficult time understanding how NeoCons continue to attack the ACLU, when they (neocons) shout from the highest rooftops that they are the true defenders of liberty. How laughable is that, when they attack the only organization who has fought to protect the Constitution when everyone else said its ok, it is only a murderer, or a black man, or a chinaman, or that law doesn’t affect me, only jews, or I don’t mind jesus in my school system after all we are a judeo-christian culture. I would rather see 500 guilty persons set free, than to watch in horror as one person that is innocent is locked up or worse executed. I don’t want criminals on our streets any more than you or anyone else does. I also don’t want criminals running my country and yet there it is, they are trying to eliminate free speech, free access to information and permeate our schools with religious ideology. I can not understand why every American is not a member of the ACLU. I know that it has defended some very unpopular people in its storied and historic past, yet even the chickenhawk rightwing pundit Rush Limbaugh has been defended by them. Do I agree with them in that defense, emphatically no, Do I believe it will protect my rights, emphatically YES. So I suck it up and accept that if I want my rights protected, then the rights of those that I would fight with my last breath also are entitled to the same protection. I hope you will check out the links I am providing to learn more about this great American Institution that the Rightwing pundits, the chickhawks and Right wing Taliban call An Enemy of the State. I agree wholeheartedly that it is their enemy. The ACLU is an enemy to any organization, entity or process that desires to eliminate FREEDOM for all Americans. That is why I am a proud supporter of the ACLU and all that it stands for in our country.
The ACLU is our nation’s guardian of liberty. We work daily in courts, legislatures and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States. Our job is to conserve America’s original civic values – the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
The American system of government is founded on two counterbalancing principles: that the majority of the people governs, through democratically elected representatives; and that the power even of a democratic majority must be limited, to ensure individual rights.
Majority power is limited by the Constitution’s Bill of Rights, which consists of the original ten amendments ratified in 1791, plus the three post-Civil War amendments (the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth) and the Nineteenth Amendment (women’s suffrage), adopted in 1920.
The mission of the ACLU is to preserve all of these protections and guarantees:
Your First Amendment rights-freedom of speech, association and assembly. Freedom of the press, and freedom of religion supported by the strict separation of church and state.
Your right to equal protection under the law – equal treatment regardless of race, sex, religion or national origin.
Your right to due process – fair treatment by the government whenever the loss of your liberty or property is at stake.
Your right to privacy – freedom from unwarranted government intrusion into your personal and private affairs.
We work also to extend rights to segments of our population that have traditionally been denied their rights, including Native Americans and other people of color; lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and transgendered people; women; mental-health patients; prisoners; people with disabilities; and the poor.If the rights of society’s most vulnerable members are denied, everybody’s rights are imperiled.
http://www.aclu.org/about/aboutmain.cfm
http://scorecard.aclu.org/scorecardmain.html
http://www.topix.net/news/aclu
And just google aclu with your states name, to find out about your states aclu activities.
