Champion of Liberty:
ACLU marks 40 years in Michigan (written for the Detroit Jewish News)
Radical immigrants plot violence against the United States. Government agents crack down, arresting thousands. The Washington Post opines, “There is no time to waste on hair-splitting over infringement of liberty.”
Reaction to the Sept.. 11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center? No, these were the “Palmer raids,” coordinated by U.S. Attorney General Mitchell Palmer in 1920 as a response to perceived threats from communists and other groups.
These and similar government actions against individuals, whose only crime was their political convictions, led to the founding of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in 1920.
In its first year, the ACLU fought Palmer’s campaign of intimidation and harassment, supported the rights of trade unionists to meet and organize, and secured the release of hundreds of people arrested for anti-war views and activities.
The Bill of Rights has been part of the United States Constitution since 1791, but before the ACLU began, it was rarely used to defend minority rights. Now celebrating its 40th anniversary, the state affiliate has “been behind every major case involving the Bill of Rights or state human rights law,” said Michigan Executive Director Kary Moss.
Some cases involve litigation, and some of those set legal precedents. In Bergman v. Kelley, a federal judge found the FBI responsible for the Ku Klux Klan’s attacks on Freedom Riders in 1961. In Doe v. University of Michigan, the ACLU overturned university rules punishing speech that “stigmatizes” various groups. In Lane v. City of Warren, a woman won the right to host a Sunday morning worship service in her home. In Quinn v. Dept. of Social Services, the ACLU’s lawsuit changed a state practice barring the adoption of bi-racial and black children by white families.
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Moss is baffled when anyone describes the ACLU as “leftist” or “liberal.” “There’s nothing more conservative than defending the Constitution,” says Moss. “Our membership includes Republicans, Democrats and Libertarians, young and old, from every religious and ethnic group. We’re very diverse.”
On one case, the ACLU partnered with Right to Life, she said, and on another, with the National Rifle Association, both usually regarded as ultra-conservative.
….
Moss disagrees with Americans who believe civil liberties must be compromised in order to feel safe. “More security doesn’t have to mean less privacy,” she said. “The government already has wide-ranging powers to wiretap, search and detain immigrants. There’s no evidence that it was limits on those powers that led to this situation…..We must not translate legitimate public distress into a mandate for the surrender of the Bill of Rights.”
ACLU marks 40 years in Michigan (written for the Detroit Jewish News)
Radical immigrants plot violence against the United States. Government agents crack down, arresting thousands. The Washington Post opines, “There is no time to waste on hair-splitting over infringement of liberty.”
Reaction to the Sept.. 11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center? No, these were the “Palmer raids,” coordinated by U.S. Attorney General Mitchell Palmer in 1920 as a response to perceived threats from communists and other groups.
These and similar government actions against individuals, whose only crime was their political convictions, led to the founding of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in 1920.
In its first year, the ACLU fought Palmer’s campaign of intimidation and harassment, supported the rights of trade unionists to meet and organize, and secured the release of hundreds of people arrested for anti-war views and activities.
The Bill of Rights has been part of the United States Constitution since 1791, but before the ACLU began, it was rarely used to defend minority rights. Now celebrating its 40th anniversary, the state affiliate has “been behind every major case involving the Bill of Rights or state human rights law,” said Michigan Executive Director Kary Moss.
Some cases involve litigation, and some of those set legal precedents. In Bergman v. Kelley, a federal judge found the FBI responsible for the Ku Klux Klan’s attacks on Freedom Riders in 1961. In Doe v. University of Michigan, the ACLU overturned university rules punishing speech that “stigmatizes” various groups. In Lane v. City of Warren, a woman won the right to host a Sunday morning worship service in her home. In Quinn v. Dept. of Social Services, the ACLU’s lawsuit changed a state practice barring the adoption of bi-racial and black children by white families.
….
Moss is baffled when anyone describes the ACLU as “leftist” or “liberal.” “There’s nothing more conservative than defending the Constitution,” says Moss. “Our membership includes Republicans, Democrats and Libertarians, young and old, from every religious and ethnic group. We’re very diverse.”
On one case, the ACLU partnered with Right to Life, she said, and on another, with the National Rifle Association, both usually regarded as ultra-conservative.
….
Moss disagrees with Americans who believe civil liberties must be compromised in order to feel safe. “More security doesn’t have to mean less privacy,” she said. “The government already has wide-ranging powers to wiretap, search and detain immigrants. There’s no evidence that it was limits on those powers that led to this situation…..We must not translate legitimate public distress into a mandate for the surrender of the Bill of Rights.”