How people answer that question depends on whose ox is being gored.
The American Civil Liberties Union was founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States.” It has been at the center of controversy ever since.
Conservatives in general, and cops in particular, see the ACLU as the American Criminal Liberties Union because it has on many occasions charged cops and police agencies in violating the civil rights of lawbreakers. On the other hand, liberals see the ACLU as protector of our civil rights.
The ACLU works through many local chapters and therein lies the problem. I really cannot find where the national chapter has taken on cases that are actually out of line with its objectives. Much of the controversy surrounding its stands results from the ACLU’s interpretation of the separation of church and state. And with respect to challenges by the national chapter to police actions or authority, one must recognize that there is always going to be a cop somewhere who crosses the line by treading on someone’s constitutional rights.
Just as controversial is the ACLU’s defense of the KKK and American Nazi groups when their free speech rights have been infringed upon by local governments.
In those cases where the ACLU has been overzealous in going after the police and after public religious practices and displays, the problems were brought about by local chapters that were dominated by hyper-community activists.
The ACLU is not an anti-police organization. I can recall reading news reports of several police officers that were unjustly terminated by their respective police organizations who turned to the ACLU for help when their unions were unsuccessful in preventing their firings. The ACLU lawyers were able to have the terminations overturned. And the ACLU has also helped cops who were disciplined short of being fired.
I personally turned to the ACLU when Marxist dominated administrators at College of the Mainland threatened to fire me the next time I went public in with my opposition to the avowed Marxist professors who were trying to indoctrinate gullible young students with their anti-Americanism. The Texas City Sun published my offer to pay the airfare for Larry Smith, the leader of the Marxist faction, if he would leave the U.S. to live in the communist country of his choice and not return.
I asked the Houston chapter of the ACLU for help. I was invited to present my case in person to the board of directors and was surprised to see Larry there, not knowing he was on the board. After hearing my presentation the board, which had recused Larry from voting, voted unanimously to represent me against the college. (Had they not recused Larry, I firmly believe he would have supported my request.)
The ACLU’s lead Houston attorney told me that while he ‘detested’ my positions, he felt I had every right to take on the Marxists in public and that the college was violating my rights of free speech. Within a week he had the college administrators running for cover and apologizing to me for their threats.
I will continue to criticize the ACLU on those occasions when I believe it is out of line, but I will not refer to the ACLU as the American Criminal Liberties Union. I know from my personal experience that the ACLU is protecting everyone’s rights, be they liberals or conservatives and cops or criminals.
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