Some Rights Causes Are More Equal Than Others
If you were arrested for speaking on public streets, where would you turn for help? These days, the answer may depend on what you were saying.
Suppose you were arrested for marching through the streets of Dearborn, Michigan, protesting Israeli policies against Palestinians. Unquestionably, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) would support your rights, even filing suit on your behalf.
Suppose, instead, you were arrested for preaching Christianity on the streets of Dearborn. Would you ask the ACLU for help? Would it help you? Well, maybe.
Consider the four people arrested on June 18, 2010, for proselytizing passersby at Dearborn’s Arab International Festival. Certainly the ACLU agreed that the arrests had violated the missionaries’ constitutional rights. The state ACLU chapter’s legal director told the Michigan Messenger that “the man encouraging others to convert to Christianity was engaged in speech protected by the First Amendment.” But that is all. The organization did not issue any press releases to that effect, address the matter on its website, or reference it in listserv emails.
According to Brenda Bove, paralegal for the ACLU Fund of Michigan, the defendants — members of Acts 17 Apologetics — did not ask the ACLU for help. They received assistance from another organization, the Thomas More Law Center. The trial ended on September 24 with four acquittals on charges of breaching the peace.
The ACLU touts itself as “our nation’s guardian of liberty.” It has pursued a strategy of assisting society’s fringes, including its most offensive elements, on the theory that by protecting their civil liberties, it would necessarily safeguard the rights of all. Hence its advocacy for Nazis planning to march through Skokie, Illinois, a community with many Holocaust survivors. The ACLU explains, “We’re not anti-anything. The only things we fight are attempts to take away or limit your civil liberties, like your right to practice any religion you want (or none at all) … or to speak out — for or against — anything at all.”
Yet, strangely, the ACLU has said little about certain Islamist attempts to chill free speech and convert criticism of Islam into a crime, although it is outspoken about government purportedly chilling Muslims’ First Amendment rights. Former ACLU board member Wendy Kaminer explains:
When the U.S. State Department condemned publication of the notorious Muhammad cartoons in 2005, and newspapers in the U.S. declined to publish them, the ACLU was virtually silent. In fact, talking points issued by the press office … recommended ducking questions about the cartoons. … Three years later, in 2008, despite a new focus on international human rights, the ACLU declined to join a free speech coalition opposing a UN defamation of religion resolution that targeted criticism of Islam.
The ACLU continues to shirk the free speech fight against Islamism by refusing to sign a petition criticizing the UN’s defamation of religion resolution as incipient censorship. Many groups have noted the danger that this declaration poses to free expression, but the ACLU has not.
More recently, certain state chapters have advocated for critics of Islam. Notably, after almost two months of demonstrating little interest in the case, the New Jersey chapter just filed suit on behalf of Derek Fenton, who had been fired from his public job for burning a Koran while off duty. But the ACLU’s national organization seems fixated on America allegedly “persecuting Muslims,” as illustrated by its numerous statements on the subject. It has issued no similar statement about persecution of Jews, for example, although the FBI’s most recent (2008) hate crime statistics indicate that ten times more religiously motivated hate crimes targeted Jews than Muslims.
Like the ACLU, Amnesty International (AI) has prided itself on evenhandedness. From its Cold War beginnings, it projected an image of impartiality by focusing on prisoners of conscience from different geographical and political spheres (communist, capitalist, and developing). More recently, however, it has shown deep reluctance to criticize radical Islam. For example, Brooke Goldstein of the Children’s Rights Institute found the group largely uninterested in jihadists’ use of children as suicide bombers.
The group has worked with former Guantanamo detainee Moazzam Begg, sponsoring him on a speaking tour advocating release of detainees, despite his support for the Taliban and widespread concerns about detainee recidivism. Upset that AI was putting the rights of al-Qaeda terror suspects above those of their victims, Gita Sahgal, then head of the gender unit of AI’s international secretariat, sharply criticized the organization for associating with Begg. “To be appearing on platforms with Britain’s most famous supporter of the Taliban, whom we treat as a human rights defender, is a gross error of judgment,” Sahgal said.
Sahgal went public with her criticism in February 2010, after two years of in-house warnings had been ignored. Hours later, AI suspended her from her position. On April 9, she left AI by mutual agreement due to “irreconcilable differences.”
The American Civil Liberties Union is another of those wrongly named organization like People for the American Way. They are anti-American. That is not hyperbole. The ACLU was founded by a Socialist and a Communist. Both ardently pacifist, and both anti-militarism. Nash believed wholeheartedly in the abolition of personal property, that in and of itself is anti-American, if you believe as I do that America was founded on the idea of personal liberty, and protection of personal property as laid out by the founding fathers, and representing as Victor David Hanson put it yesterday, 2500 years of Western thought.
The ACLU has been a thorn in Christianity’s side since the onset. It was they who sought a volunteer to challenge the Butler Act that resulted in the Scopes trial, wrongly propagandized in the historically bankrupt Inherit the Wind as something more than the show trial it was. Darrow intended from the outset to lose the case so that it could be challenged at a higher court.
I don’t know why it should be a surprise to any adult that the ACLU would defend Islam. Just the main stream media, they are the fifth column for Islam. Once again, leftist court fanatical Islam to destroy their enemies, wrongly believing they can control them afterward.
no offense but I just can’t understand yout mind system. Civilian people are being killed by Israeli police, including the kids who cannot be terrorist anyway, as they were killed in 9/11 terrorist attacks and you, somehow equating this with some preaching missionary? you should think about yourself again.
Besides, that cartoons was a clear cut deamation to Islam. Muslims cannot do a similiar thing about the Christ, (he is sacred in our religion too), but just, think of a similiar thing, what would you do?
Just google “ACLU defending christian” and you’ll get a more even-handed picture that this article provides.
Must be a recent phenomenon, because I know of cases where they were less than interested in defending Christians and pushed the need for both membership/donations to support pro-abortion and other things most Christians would cringe at supporting. That would have been over ten years ago, however.
The ACLU’s stances and choices of causes to defend flow largely from its funding sources: almost exclusively left-liberals and left-liberal foundations. It’s an illustration of Mark Twain’s “Corn Pone Law:” “You tell me whar a man gits his corn pone, en I’ll tell you what his ‘pinions is.”
It’s difficult for me to imagine that such organizations – and I do feel that the Democrat party falls into that grouping – actually have a large number of followers. These groups always claim stridently that they ‘look out for’ minorities and minority causes yet their actions are usually in complete opposition to those very same minorities. The ACLU for example (as detailed by Johanna Markind above) seems to cherry-pick people to help and causes to support while the NAACP screams ‘racist’ at everything under the sun (the recent press release claiming the TEA Party is racist without any evidence to support their claim for example). These actions only serve to undermine their credibility and severely blunt the impact of the word ‘racism’ and in the case of the ACLU actually goes so far as to indicate that they really are not out to protect civil rights unless you fall under a certain racial and/or religious category – and isn’t that inherently racist?
Another glaring example is the Democrat party. For generations they have enjoyed the support and votes of millions of minorities – let us consider for example, why any minority in this country would support a party that actually had a past Ku Klux Klan Exalted Cyclops, former Senator Robert Byrd from West Virginia, within their ranks that had been there from 1959 – 2010 and who filibustered against the 1964 Civil Rights Act. It amazes me that minorities continue to follow the Democrat party because their claims of representing minorities are just that, claims in order to garner votes. But when you actually look at the Democrat party’s record you see that they put policies in place to keep minorities poor and keep them from ever having a chance to achieve any form of real success. So in effect you have minorities voting for a political class that actively seeks to keep them destitute and unsuccessful and, through socialistic programs, even return them to slavery.
When encountering liberals and supporters of the ACLU, I ask them if they have visited the ACLU website. The answer is usually “No”. I encourage them to visit the website, review the categories of actions in which the ACLU is most proud, and then decide if they believe the organization truly benefits our society.
Yet which organization is fighting for the separation of church and state, when Dearborn’s Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy, a public charter school, crosses the line, and starts to favor Islam?
ACLU supported the rights of Iowa students to distribute Christian literature. ACLU defend Sean Hannity when he was fired from his Santa Barbara radio job. ACLU argued in favor of the right of Christians to protest against a gay pride event held in the City of St. Petersburg. ACLU helped Robert Weinstein recover his handguns from police custody.
Get a brain. Get a life. Get an education. Get out of the way, for god’s sake, you’re obstructing our nation’s great future with ignorance and indignation.
Born Senseless refutes itself, again.
Your Sensei
“You see, when you start to assign motives to people, you can’t prove anything.”
November 8, 2010 – 7:16 am
Better than destroying our great nation with debt and over-regulation.
I notice that neither of you bothered to address what he said, though.
I believe your tactic is “look, over there – a unicorn!”
The ACLU has defended christians, and will probably continue to do so. The premise of this article is therefore dubious.
Yeah, I learned the trick from Your Sensei (but not mine).
Sauce for the goose, ya know…
Deficits don’t matter
Just like bets don’t matter, even when you can settle the bet by donating to charity?
You really didn’t think I had forgotten that, did ya, Sensei?
Nope. I’ve turned you into one of my several stalkers/students. You and Mr. Lucky just happened to appear together. You might want to reconsider who you hang out with. Guilt by cognitive dissonance.
Ya know, that looks like a threat to me. Think I’ll report it to the management here… if you read the comment guidelines, it says that they do take threats seriously.
As always, I leave it to the reader to determine who’s right and who’s wrong on the bet… the links are above.
Poor Born Sleazits. There is an up side, at least in Modern Liberal Cesspools.
Born Sleazits gets the Blue Ribbon of Certified Victimhood. Add that to the Liar of the Year Mini Toilet Seat Medal, the Mr. President Rolled and Discarded Campaign Button, and the award for the Most Gallons of Raw Sewage Spewed in a Year. Damn, you’re looking like an old Soviet era Marshal.
So which one of Persons Galore gets to wear all this stuff? As a Modern Liberal, you did have plastic facsimiles made so all the Personalities can feel equal. Leveling is such a great thing, especially when self centered Modern Liberals are subjected to it.
Are there plastic Kick Me signs too? Careful, OSHA lurks. Are you franchising, in these wonderfully buoyant economic times?
Mr. President only wants an 80/20 split. Go for it!!!! You lapped it up the first time, why not a repeat. Or three-peat. Or…
Mr. President will love you like his half-brother. In Kenya.
Whatever.
Threat? How so? Then again, I’m guessing you feel threatened by a lot of things – circus clowns, short-haired dogs, antique furniture, pencil lead, rutabagas.
I recommend trying to balance your manliness with your tattletaledom. Nobody likes a snitch, especially when they’re whining about something that doesn’t exist.
Here, let me help. Here’s a cute little story that won’t scare you the weest wittle bit. But pay attention. You just might learn something.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHQYJ0EyzaE
“Manliness”.
The Born Sleazits “Committee” sets dogma for others but cannot bring itself to reconcile its own words with its own words –
Your Sensei
“You see, when you start to assign motives to people, you can’t prove anything.”
November 8, 2010 – 7:16 am
So what about it Born Sleazits? And once again all this “man talk” comes back, and here it is right in front of you, and you cannot bring your manly self to be a “man”, about which you have so loudly barked about on many occasions.
Like this?
69 sleazits:
“Man up and take your righteous lumps…”
Jan 29, 2010 – 9:05 am
“You see, when you start to assign motives to people, you can’t prove anything.”
Maybe it was just a throw away thought, you know, something you don’t really believe but find useful in your world of Funhouse Mirror thought. Like so many Persons Galore, the truth is for others. Not me! No way. I’m special. I’m Me. I’m Persons Galore! I lie and pretend. So….!
Just another lie. Coward. This is no “cute little story”.
Time for a new name Born Sleazits. The pressure is building. The posts become shorter, more numerous, names appear randomly, and the posts are more angry. The pattern will repeat. The game is up. Again. Clang!
Whatever.
“To consider oneself a sensei, one must first have honor. To renege on a bet not only is dishonorable, but also untruthful. For how can one be a sensei to those beneath him if he cannot be trusted.”
So spake Zarathustra (with a Chinese accent).
Actually, I have learned something from you, Sensei.
I’ve learned that the average lefty troll here on PJM is a dishonest creep who won’t even pay off on a measly $10 bet, even if the payment goes to a non-political charity.
Perfect fit for the ethics-challenged Democrats. Did you take lessons from the guy with the $90,000 in his freezer? Maybe from Client Number Nine up in New York? Perhaps you studied at the knees of the numerous tax cheats that were uncovered at the beginning of The Won’s reign, not to mention John Kerry who kept his yacht in another state to avoid taxes, until the bright light was shined on him? And then there’s Blago and John Edwards… not to mention Algore.
Yes, Sensei, your ethics and sense of honor (or lack thereof) are a perfect fit for the Democrats.
When has the ACLU defended Christians from Muslim intimidation.
Are a lot of christians finding their rights being trampled by muslims in the US? I mean, it’s a matter of odds, yeah? Find an example first, then see what the ACLU did.
These so-called “human rights” groups are filled with leftists who view western civilization with contempt, as many have pointed out, but let me just add another charge, that of cowardice. They toady to Muslims and Islam because they are afraid of what might happen to them if they don’t. Never mind that most Muslims wouldn’t resort to intimidation or violence; there are enough who would, and the quiet ones would stay quiet about it.
All parts of the Constitution are equal, but the 14th amendment is more equal than the rest.
So is the ACLU anti-gay? Not criticizing the Arab and Islamic countries for their their treatment of homosexuals would lead me to think so. I guess it’s only wrong if white American men discriminate.
UN and HRC criticize USA for having the death penalty and for use of “torture”, however they do not mention that thieves in Saudi Arabia and in Iran get their hands cut off. Usually for repeated offenses. In Iran in the last several months, seven people got their hands amputated. What’s more, one of them got his hand amputated after he stole some items from the bakery!!
And don’t even think of getting help from the ACLU if you have a gun rights problem. ACLU = American Criminal Legal Assistance.
See my respose to Dave, below.
“In the ninety year history of the ACLU this is the first time the ACLU has gone to court to defend a person’s right to keep and bear arms, according to Brandon Hensler the ACLU communications director in Florida.”
“The ACLU is trying to get the Broward County Sheriff’s office to return the firearms of Robert Weinstein who had his guns confiscated after making a rhetorical comment that he felt like “blowing his head off” out of frustration at his inability to get his wifes ashes delivered to the funeral home for burial, three weeks after she was cremated. Despite a hospital evaluation, the police still refuse to return his guns.”
The only reason the ACLU is supporting the return of this guy’s guns is they like the idea of unhinged 85 year old’s blowing their brains out, because they know who is going to get blamed if he does.
This is a special case, and as the ACLU admits, is unique in its history.
The only time the ACLU supports rights/freedoms/privileges is when doing so furthers their leftist/communist agenda.
And, having an armed populace capable of resisting a totalitarian left wing government isn’t part of their agenda, now, or ever.
Seriously – is it THAT hard to google your own claims before posting?
Here – I’ll do it for you:
http://www.google.com.au/search?q=ACLU+defends+gun+rights
Read it and … whatever.
Always happy to see someone correct a mistaken claim made by the ACLU.
Consider it stipulated that the Florida case is practically unique.
ACLU POSITION
‘Given the reference to “a well regulated Militia” and “the security of a free State,” the ACLU has long taken the position that the Second Amendment protects a collective right rather than an individual right. For seven decades, the Supreme Court’s 1939 decision in United States v. Miller was widely understood to have endorsed that view.’
‘The Supreme Court has now ruled otherwise. In striking down Washington D.C.’s handgun ban by a 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court’s 2008 decision in D.C. v. Heller held for the first time that the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to keep and bear arms, whether or not associated with a state militia.’
‘The ACLU disagrees with the Supreme Court’s conclusion about the nature of the right protected by the Second Amendment. We do not, however, take a position on gun control itself. In our view, neither the possession of guns nor the regulation of guns raises a civil liberties issue’
http://www.aclu.org/racial-justice_prisoners-rights_drug-law-reform_immigrants-rights/second-amendment
That’s been the ACLU’s position, but if local branches want to defy the national organization’s long held anti-rights agenda…more power to them.
Matt is so condescending. How come he’s not replying?
I thought I did.
There should be a response here, pointing out that whatever the official position might be, ACLU chapters do still take on gun rights cases.
Dunno. Maybe I’m misremembering posting it.
The ACLU is another group that exists for no reason other than to fatten itself upon the body of America….It is in fact, the prototype of all organizations that MANUFACTURE non-events into legal battles, in order to provide employment to an otherwise idle and non-productive clique of while collar elites, who otherwise have no real marketplace value in the world where reality rules the day.
At their heart and soul, they are lazy, disingenuous snake oil salesmen, creating controversy, (and thereby careers), where non actually exists.
Ask yourself, did Shannon Faulkner, a weak and obese teenager, with nothing in her personality remotely resembling a warrior, REALLY WANT TO go to the Cidadel? Or was she somehow, quietly compensated after they used her “neutral” sounding first name and Grade Point Average to get their foot in the door, and create lots of expensive high profile “busy work” for their lawyers? Why else do YOU think she dropped out Day One?
Notice they will not “crusade on principal” against the numerous womans only colleges that receive state and federal funding.
They only take the easy, profitable, politically correct cases that will enrich their coffers while perpetuating the false legend that they are somehow “courageous” in their convictions. Living off the fat of actual, real, productive and benificial instututions and industries, while contributing nothing themselves the pie.
They will not rock the islamic boat unless it is to curry favor with the Mohamadeens against evil, racist white folks….because taking a stand against Sharia Law and its perversions is actually a covert death sentence, and they know it.
Who wants to be stalked, FOREVER, with a Fatwa on their head, for speaking the truth? Live in fear for your entire “career” that some anonymous “righteous follower” will pin a page of the Koran to you with a knife in your chest, ala van gough? Work in offices that have been threatened with bombings, by peole who actually DO bomb things, over the trivialist of percieved insults?
Certainly not the cowards at the ACLU
“The ACLU is another group that exists for no reason other than to fatten itself upon the body of America…”
It was created by communists to protect communists and expedite the spread of communism.
“Roger Nash Baldwin became head of the National Civil Liberties Bureau (NCLB) in 1917. An independent outgrowth of the American Union Against Militarism, the Bureau opposed American intervention in World War I. The NCLB provided legal advice and aid for conscientious objectors and those being prosecuted under the Espionage Act of 1917 or the Sedition Act of 1918. In 1920, the NCLB changed its name to the American Civil Liberties Union, with Baldwin continuing as its director and Walter Nelles as chief counsel. Jeannette Rankin, Jane Addams, Crystal Eastman, Albert DeSilver, Helen Keller, along with other former members of the NCLB, assisted Baldwin with the founding of the ACLU.[1] Among the founding members was Felix Frankfurter, who later became an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.[8] DeSilver and Nelles were Baldwin’s closest associates.[9][10]”
“The ACLU was formed to protect aliens threatened with deportation, along with U.S. nationals threatened with criminal charges by U.S. Attorney General Alexander Mitchell Palmer for their communist or socialist activities and agendas[11] (see Palmer Raids). It also opposed attacks on the rights of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and other labor unions to meet and organize”–wiki
What they want is a society that is as decadent and in as much turmoil as possible because that will create ideal conditions for a communist revolution. What they don’t want is an armed populace that is capable of resisting a communist government.
They support causes that they think will weaken existing societal institutions and advance the cause of totalitarian communism.
At least that’s how it’s always been in the past.
My childhood was miserable, because my Dad was a mean bastard. The only time the authorities ever wanted to remove us from my parents’ care was AFTER the divorce and my Mother had us. NEVER when my Father had us. Because they KNEW he was a mean bastard and would make it personal for them. They were AFRAID of him.
Lib do-gooders rarely want skin in the game. They don’t give to real charities much. They do not stand against the real bad guys. Heck, they don’t even pay their taxes, it seems. So, do not expect them to stand up to Islam.
And yes, the ACLU was founded by Marxists as an effort to exploit our freedoms by abusing them, thus distorting them. Freedom is fragile. It’s very openness makes it vulnerable. The tyrants know this. The only way it endures is if most people fully embrace it in their hearts. Sheeple won’t get it done.
How about the rights of gay boys vs. the rest of society?
The LGBTU and Graeme Taylor
I learned a new acronym today. Well, I had heard it a while back but then it had a different context. Now “LGBTU” stands for the familiar Lesbians Gays Bi-sexuals Transgenders plus “U” for Unsure. The “U” used to represent “Union,” as in an LGBT Union or organization, but Unsure seems to be the more popular meaning today, referring to those unsure as to the nature of their sexuality.
A valid question in response to all that, if one is not of the “gay” persuasion, would be, Who cares? However, if one is not a lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, or transgendered individual or, especially, the parent of a young adult, that “U” for “unsure” is very significant.
It seems a simple, thinly-veiled recruitment tool for homosexuals to draw into their lifestyle some teenaged boy who was just dumped by the love of his life and now, usually very temporarily, thinks all girls are meanies or that teen girl who found out her beau cheated on her and now believes, also very temporarily, that all males are unrepentant rotters.
Far fetched? Maybe yes and maybe no.
All this came to mind as a result of a story out of Michigan concerning an incident in the classroom of Mr. Jay McDowell, a male, economics teacher at Howell High School in Howell, MI. It involves the rights of free speech and free expression as well as the issues of rights under the First Amendment, bullying, and homosexuality in America’s schools.
If not for that last issue–if it’s not considered bullying to refer to homosexuality as an issue–the story probably wouldn’t have garnered the national attention that it has. . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=2715)