Crushing of Dissent at the ACLU

The ACLU preaches that "dissent is patriotic". However, as critics such as Nat Hentoff have pointed out, the leadership of the ACLU has a somewhat less indulgent view of dissent within their organization. Today, as the New York Times reports, a group of ACLU dissidents has gone public with their concerns:

More than 30 longtime supporters of the American Civil Liberties Union are calling for the ouster of the organization’s leadership, saying it has failed to adhere to the principles it demands of others and thus jeopardized the organization’s effectiveness.

The new group is made up of donors, former board and staff members, and the lawyer who won what was perhaps the A.C.L.U.’s most famous legal battle, its defense of the right of Nazis to march through a predominantly Jewish suburb of Chicago.

“We come together now, reluctantly but resolutely, not to injure the A.C.L.U. but to restore its integrity and its consistency of principle,’’ the group said in a mission statement to be posted on its Web site, www.savetheaclu.org, which is to go live today.


It would be easier to take the ACLU's knee-jerk opposition to every effort to defend America against jihadist terror seriously if the organization actually practiced what it preached.