The ACLU is out of line

Boston Globe ^ | March 19, 2005 | Anil Adyanthaya

[Kimmers]

I say whenever the ACLU comes to a community threatening lawsuits for a change they should sponsor a vote in that community and if the community wants the change then fine it is changed.....if the community does not want the change then the ACLU can get out and stay out

[Milhous]

How did this make it into the Boston Globe?

Apparently a schism exists between the barking moonbat media and the screaming Dean wing of the the Democrat party.

[exDemMom]

But in a bizarre tactical decision, it has decided to abdicate that self-appointed role...

Silly me, I didn't realize this was a recent occurance. I thought it had happened decades ago.

The ACLU sends me occasional fund raising letters. I stuff the business reply envelope with newsletters from Judicial watch, the Clare Booth Luce Institute, whatever I happen to have that doesn't identify me personally, and send it to them so they have to pay the postage. It's not much, I know, but I still feel a little smidge of satisfaction.

[Piquaboy]

The only mission of the ACLU is to destroy the United States. Period! They need to be stopped ASAP.

[Liz]

Among ACLU's founders January 12, 1920, were William Z. Foster, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn and Louis F. Budenz. All three later became prominent leaders of the Communist Party, USA, although Budenz broke with the Party in 1945 and became a militant anti-Communist.

In 1976, Congress passed the Civil Rights Attorneys Fee Awards Act, which was designed to encourage private lawyers to take on suits to protect civil and constitutional rights. The law provides that judges can order federal and state governments to pay legal fees to private lawyers who sued the government and won. The result has been a flood of civil rights cases in federal court. From The New American Feb. 2, 1987

It's an outrage that US law, passed during the Watergate era, allows the ACLU to collect attorney's fees for makework----Christian-hatng lawsuits it itself launches.

That means "values voters" have been footing the bill for the ACLU's launching a juggernaut to remove Ten Commandments images, Christmas creches and Christmas carols, taking God out of the Pledge of Allegiance, and because they claim they have a civil right not to see the Ten Commandments, a civil right not to hear the word “God” in the Pledge of Allegiance, not to see a creche of the Baby Jesus, not to hear Christmas carols. The ACLU has collected a huge amount of our tax dollars in this left-handed fundraiser for the ACLU.

FReepers can silence the ACLU with a bit of activism. We need to insist our Congressmen repeal this abusive law that allows the ACLU to get rich on harassing Christian America. Congress must repeal laws enabling the ACLU's Christian-hating activities. Cut off the ACLU's funds and watch them disappear. Here's what we can do.

Under the aegis of the ACLU's Foundation---worth some $135 million---any number of financial travesties can be hidden. The IRS should determine whether the ACLU is properly accounting for all its tax-funded activities, whether it is inflating legal costs, and whether it is using tax dollars for the purposes stated. We need to know whether the ACLU is engaged in Enron-style accounting and spending practices.

REFERENCE SOURCE FOR ARGUING REPEAL TO CONGRESS

Apparently, when Congress contemplated the fee-shifting bill three decades ago, it never conceived that 42 U.S.C. §1988 would be used to secure fees in esoteric battles over the meaning of the establishment clause of the First Amendment.

The statute gives a court "discretion" to award attorneys' fees to the prevailing party in civil rights cases.

Study of the legislative history of the statute reveals that Congress intended this statute to apply to civil rights abuses, including certain race and sex discrimination cases, but not to arguments about whether Judge Roy Moore is allowed to display the Ten Commandments in the Alabama courthouse.

During the deliberations on the bill, the Senate penned that "in many cases arising under our civil rights laws, the citizen who must sue to enforce the law has little or no money with which to hire a lawyer."[6] In the recent First Amendment lawsuits filed by the ACLU, the tables are turned.

Small school districts and municipalities can either defend lawsuits and risk paying the ACLU's attorneys' fees if they lose, or they can voluntarily submit to the ACLU's view of the Constitution.

Even if lawsuits over the establishment clause somehow fall within 42 U.S.C. §1988, the statute empowers courts with nothing more than "discretion" to award fees.

In these cases, one would expect courts to withhold awarding fees. Since this is not happening, Congress must take immediate action to clarify 42 U.S.C. §1988 to explicitly exclude lawsuits related to the acknowledgement of God.

[Dawgreg]

Thanks Jay, very valuable info.

[nightdriver]

ACLU = Anti-Christian Litigation Union.

[mel]

Good information.

[FlashBack]

I think that's a great idea exDemMom!!!!

Thanks for the ping Jay!!!!

The ACLU continues to slide further and further down the road to obscurity!

[OESY]

The ACLU says its "job" is to "defend the rights of every man, woman and child in this country" and "defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to all people in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States."

Who are they kidding? They never support the mission of our troops or police to combat terrorism and, to my knowledge, were conspicuously silent on Terri Schiavo's rights, starting with her right to life. ACLU is a shill for Democrats and, as such, should be denied tax-exempt status on account of their political activities.