The ACLU & Citizens United

I have spent a lifetime walking in near lock-step with the ACLU and its unwavering support of our fragile Bill of Rights, particularly the 1^st amendment, and its laser-beam concentration on that amendment’s “freedom of speech, or of the press” clause.  God knows I could write a short book glorifying dozens of unpopular cases that the ACLU took on, and won.  But here I would like to register my dismay at their narrow reading of the issues in the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission Supreme Court case of 2008 – 2011.  In this case, the ACLU submitted an Amicus brief for the film maker, and it was right to do so: Citizens United had every right to have its movie broadcast.  But the ACLU erred in siding with the Court in its expanded consideration of the place of money in politics.  Here is what they wrote for public consumption in defense of their position.

Paris

I can recall from long, long ago an older relative calling World War II "the recent unpleasantness."  It had a clever ironic ring to it that made you wake up to how really awful it was.  Indeed, if you don't know how really awful it was, you have no sense of history.  If you are not old enough to remember the war, an over-exposure to images and facts and figures may do the trick; so put a day aside and immerse yourself in a bit of "recent" history.

The "recent unpleasantness" in Paris is a European capital's 9/11.  A wake-up call, not that any European capital needed one.  And it is having all sorts of unintended consequences here, too.  The governors of many (23 as of this morning) American states have decided to close their borders to Syrian refugees who are trying to escape the self-same bastards that are now targeting Europe.  They don't want to be next, "not on my watch."  And who can blame them?  Because of a few evil bastards, hundreds of thousands of innocents will see their cries for help turned aside.

The Four Freedoms

       

The following is stolen verbatim from the Norman Rockwell Museum's website.