Posted on 12/18/2001 1:03:09 PM PST by 45Auto
The so-called, American Civil Liberties Union, is always in the news.
It is always in the news because it is the left’s favorite stalking…no…Trojan horse, which conceals things not fit for delicate sensibilities – but then there is little that is delicate about the left. It is hard to overestimate the impact of the ACLU on things legal and it is hard to overestimate the incursion of things legal upon our litigious republic; they have seeped, like some pernicious Love Canal pestilence, deep into America.
In preparing this article we did a simple search of the number of Associated Press articles that had connections with the ACLU, we found 50 of these from December 9 through November 29 alone, which is a stunning indictment that easily stands by itself. Now allegedly having amassed a membership of almost 300,000 or so fellow travelers, the ACLU continues pursuing its historical M.O. - clothing itself in the garb of patriotic sounding non-sequiturs while attacking the very foundations of our system of government, all the while hermetically wrapping itself in the flag, free speech and the Establishment Clause - Santa Claus is another thing however, to their sensibilities - some vestigial remnant of a hopelessly moribund Christian ethos.
The ACLU was founded in 1920 by Roger Baldwin (upon his release from the slammer) primarily to create a legal defense mechanism to keep himself on the right side of the jailer and secondarily to advance the cause of and legally defend communists - many of whom were recent immigrants having come to this country only as a last resort when the heat in the old world got a little too toasty for them.
Their first important case involved the defense of the IWW, the International Workers of the World, aka the Wobblies, who at that time were using World War I as a pretext to promote Marxism and other thinly disguised radical and revolutionary activities. A few years ago the IWW changed the verbiage behind the acronym to the “Industrial Workers of the World” to cloud their decidedly red past much in the manner that the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund changed its name to EarthJustice in an attempt to thwart the possibility of easy connections being made.
As we have written in the past the left understands the devious demi-science, nomenclatura, like yesterdays news. They understand it and employ it shamelessly.
Throughout its 80 plus years of leftwing activism the ACLU has insinuated (often being warmly welcomed) itself into the East Coast – Ivy League culture that now controls the media. It is not a conspiracy; it is a confluence of agreement arrived at in an artificially controlled atmosphere where all contradictory stimuli are eliminated, quite similar in purpose and manner to the way in which laboratory rats are bred.
In 1931 the United States House of Representatives issued the following as part of its report:
"The American Civil Liberties Union is closely affiliated with the communist movement in the United States, and fully 90% of its efforts are on behalf of Communists who have come into conflict with the law. It claims to stand for free speech, free press, and free assembly; but it is quite apparent that the main function of the ACLU is to attempt to protect the communists in their advocacy of force and violence to overthrow the Government, replacing the American flag with a red flag and erecting a Soviet Government in place of the republican form of government guaranteed to each State by the Federal Constitution Roger N. Baldwin, its guiding spirit, makes no attempt to hide his friendship for the communists and their principles.”
In the mid 1930’s Baldwin penned this in the 30th anniversary (graduating class of 1905) Harvard University autograph book:
“I am for Socialism, disarmament and ultimately, for the abolishing of the State itself seek the social ownership of property, the abolition of the propertied class and sole control of those who produce wealth. Communism is the goal."
The ACLU metastasized out of a short-lived (1916-1920) anarchist organization called the American Union Against Militarism (only US “militarism” of course) and “Red” Roger Baldwin was its director for 30 years from 1920 to 1950.
In a 1934 article written for Soviet Russia Today, Roger Baldwin stated:
"When the power of the working class is once achieved, as it has been only in the Soviet Union, I am for maintaining it by any means whatsoever…The class struggle is the central conflict of the world, all others are coincidental."
Baldwin, Dr. Harry Ward the author of pro Marxist pulp fiction such as “Soviet Democracy”, Abraham L. Wirin, chief counsel, in the ‘30’s for the Southern California Chapter of the ACLU and just about the entire command structure of the ACLU were not merely liberals but communists bent on advancing their ideology, self satisfied stooges of “Uncle Joe” Stalin. Of the ACLU in his 1941 book, The Red Decade, Eugene Lyons wrote.
“The presence of Stalin’s henchmen on an American organization of this type was an irony that no amount of sophistry could erase.”
Fast forward, past thousands upon thousands of cases filed by the ACLU in self righteous, tongue in cheek, defense of the Constitution, cases which for some not so obscure reason are always allied with the political goals of the left – witness the American Civil Liberties Union offering free legal help to foreign born non-citizens targeted for questioning by the U.S. Justice Department as part of the terror investigation.
"Unless they are apprised of their rights, it is an uneven playing field between law enforcement and those being questioned," says ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero.
The ACLU only wants to level the playing field for America’s enemies…said enemies, with a childlike trust in a beneficent Allah, having no concept of the western legalisms with which John Ashcroft and the entire Bush administration now array against them.
The response by the ACLU to the terrorist attacks against the United States are curious at best, this from the third paragraph in the New Jersey ACLU’s statement on 9/11 “Our past holds important, painfully learned lessons, to guide us today. An overwhelming injustice was done to loyal Japanese-American citizens when they were interned during World War II. German-Americans and Italian-Americans suffered…”
You got it, the same old leftist America hating litany combined with their weird brand of moral relativism attempting to further impugn the reputation of America. What really has to be done when getting to the bottom of what the ACLU is all about is to parse every single statement they make and follow it back to its roots, for example in ACLU Legislative Counsel, Rachel King’s testimony before the House Judiciary Committee on September 24, 2001
Regarding Section 303 of the proposed anti-terrorist legislation:
“This section would make the crime of attempted terrorism or conspiracy to commit terrorism punishable to the same degree as the underlying offense of terrorism. This provision is poorly drafted because the meaning is unclear. The section reads, "Any person who attempts or conspires to commit any Federal terrorism offense shall be subject to the same penalties as those prescribed for the offense…One could also interpret this provision as a "back-door" attempt to expand the death penalty"
This section of proposed legislation is anything but unclear…the rejoinder carrying the real message - that the ACLU opposes this because it is inconsistent with their opposition to capital punishment, even for convicted terrorists.
The ACLU also opposes:
The removal of the statute of limitations on crimes of terror
Increasing the maximum possible penalty for these crimes, to life
Creating "lifetime" supervised release terms, deemed essential to tracking potential terrorist recidivism
Expanding the DNA database for these offenses
Of course it goes far beyond the current preoccupation by the ACLU with the terror investigation and "racial profiling". It goes to their defense of groups like NAMBLA, their suits against publicly displayed nativity scenes, their support of the “right” of Nazis to parade their filth in front of the homes of holocaust survivors and against any concept involving community standards.
One thing is for certain, you will never see them filing an amicus brief for any organization that supports the Second Amendment or enter the fray to support a literal interpretation of the Tenth Amendment – again they are not for civil liberties per se.
What they are now is what they always have been, a massive legal defense fund used as a hammer to defend extreme leftist positions regardless of the issue involved. As soon as this is understood the rest is quite clea
They are desperate for more lawyers over there - their own are ON STRIKE!
Did you hear that?
The lawyers in France are on strike today.
And some fool here asked what the French had ever done for anybody in the last 200 years - well, here's the answer - they figured out how to get the lawyers to strike. - Geniuses I tell you - Geniuses!!!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.