> > It's unfair and and rather biased to say that
> > the American Civil Liberties
> > Union "criminalizes" our liberties, just
> > because you may not agree with some of the
> > stances they take. They fight each case on an
> > individual basis, not as part of a whole bigger
> > agenda. I'll certainly admit that, more often
> > than not, they fight on the opposite side that
> > I would, but that doesn't make them evil or
> > criminals.

> I have never ever heard of the ACLU except in a bad light. You are in fact the first person I have ever heard defend them. Ever since I began to become aware of current events in the world around me, I have always heard of the ACLU in connection with lawsuits, mainly championing the cause of "separation of church and state." Only their agenda has always seemed more biased against the church in general.

This was mentioned by a couple of other people, so I won't elaborate much here. Yes, the ACLU fights to separate the church from the state, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Prayer in school is a common example and, while I do think there should be a time for students to say their own prayers or have quiet time, I don't think they should be forced to pray or be included in a prayer. That's no way to make someone become more interested in the recipient of the prayers; being forced to pray will simply be a turn-off.

> I admit that I come out of a biased background where the ACLU has always, always been painted as the bad guy. Can you give some examples of some cases they've fought for that you would consider to be "far right," as you said? Cases where they fought for the same side that you would have fought for?

Yes, that's my background, too. While I did take the devil's advocate in responding to Nyperold's post, I'll readily admit that I'm not exactly the ACLU's biggest fan. Their stance on "Reproductive Rights" (abortion) goes against my very firm beliefs on the subject, so that automatically makes me dislike them.

However, to be fair, I do agree with some of their causes, such as Racial Equality, Immigrants' Rights, Women's Rights, and Cyber-Liberties (although I'm still sorting out some of my opinions on that one). Their stances on these and other issues, along with case examples for each issue, can be found at http://www.aclu.org/.

In addition, if you look at the ways the ACLU determines whether or not to take a case, it looks quite fair to me (http://www.aclu-nca.org/howacluaccepts.html). I think the ACLU is most definitely biased, and maybe I jumped overboard a bit when playing devil's advocate, but I also think it's an organization that can do a lot of good. The potential is most certainly there, if nothing else. Rather than criticize the institution, I think we should look at Americans themselves. After all, the ACLU represents Americans and very often reflects the opinion of the majority.

Ellmyruh