The Civil Liberties Coalition

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has announced formation of a massive coalition of groups and individuals to address civil liberties concerns as this country determines the course ahead while still absorbing the aftershocks of 9-11.

The Center for Individual Freedom was not asked to join. We did not volunteer. The individual freedoms of all Americans constitute our basis for existence, but we are more comfortable, for now, with our singular voice, small though it is, than that of a collective formed by an organization which, much too frequently, seems to have lost its way.

Too many Americans believe that the self-selected missions of the ACLU are to eradicate religion, to preserve pornography. That is an unfortunate, myopic perspective, but it is palpable, and the ACLU has largely brought it on itself. That does not help when, in the emotional upheaval of the current crisis, we need a consensus for the fundamental individual freedoms so publicly embraced, yet so poorly understood and so tenuously held.

Leadership is earned, not announced, and when conferred, carries with it requisites of dignity, respect for others and the recognition that to defend freedoms effectively is to use one’s own wisely.

We are mindful of the recent contretemps at ACLU/Hawaii over inviting U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to speak at a conference. Slur words used by some members of the Board of Directors and the initial vote not to invite Justice Thomas were more like the incendiary speech and provocative actions the ACLU defends than those of civil liberties leaders.

We have previously commented on the untoward spectacle presented by the public scuffle between current and past ACLU leaders over the constitutionality of elements of the now forgotten issue of campaign finance reform.

More recently, we have been puzzled as the ACLU obsessively pursued a relentless series of courtroom attacks on a Virginia law requiring a minute of silence in public schools. After rejection by a succession of courts, the ACLU, in August, petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court for an injunction. That was refused by Chief Justice William Rehnquist, who wrote, "After more than a year of operation, the Virginia statute providing for a minute of silence seems to have meant just that."

In mid-September, in a case and decision that went largely unreported in a nation focusing on other priorities, a U.S federal district judge ruled against the ACLU in a lawsuit that sought to stop Manatee County, Florida public school officials from renting school facilities to religious organizations during non-school hours. Those are, for the county, needed income-producing transactions, with more than 60 secular and l5 religious groups periodically renting a variety of school facilities. In the judge’s decision, she wrote, "Churches have just as much right to rent the facilities as the secular organizations."

That case, brought by the ACLU, stands in sharp contrast to a statement issued in August by the president of the Maine Civil Liberties Union. Commenting on a proposal to exclude the Boy Scouts from using Portland school facilities, Peter Del Bianco said, "Any attempt by the Portland School Committee to regulate access to afterschool use of its facilities based on viewpoint and freedom-of-association issues would not be appropriate." Similarly, in Alexandria, Louisiana, a high school ACLU chapter has threatened to go to court unless allowed to hold campus meetings.

The ACLU is not a monolithic organization, and may be the better for that, but consistency, practiced and perceived, is one of the highest priorities of principled positions, particularly as applied to civil liberties issues. Majority approval, by no means required, is by all means desired.

We, in fact, hope that ACLU’s participation in a coalition to address civil liberties will stimulate a reformation of the organization’s ideals in the arena of substantive protections for individual freedoms. We hope that a coalition made up of all positions in the political spectrum will engender a dialogue that helps all understand that the legitimate protection of freedom cannot require concessions of liberty.

This is a nation that is going to observe many moments of silence, officially and privately, in the coming months. This is a nation that is going to pray a lot, officially and privately, literally and figuratively, in the coming months. The true leaders of this nation will seek to unify us for civil liberties, not drive us apart, because that’s why we are here.

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