ACLU says 'No, thanks'

Chattanooga Times Free Press ^ | Oct. 30, 2004 | Unknown

[w6ai5q37b]

The Ford and Rockefeller foundations hand out millions of dollars each year to a variety of organizations. We may or may not agree with the activities of a given group that gets some portion of that money, but both foundations have properly drawn a line against their money supporting terrorism or other violence.

The Ford Foundation says funding recipients must agree not to engage in activity that "promotes violence, terrorism, bigotry, or the destruction of any state." News reports say this rule was put in place because some Ford money previously had wound up in the hands of radicals who bitterly oppose the state of Israel.

The Rockefeller Foundation says recipients may not "directly or indirectly engage in, promote, or support other organizations or individuals who engage in or promote terrorist activity."

It is hard to see how anyone would argue seriously that those guidelines are unreasonable. No American organization ought to want to support hateful, violent causes, let alone seek money from foundations to do so.

But amazingly, the American Civil Liberties Union has deemed the rules too restrictive and therefore has turned down more than $1 million in grants from the Ford and Rockefeller foundations.

The ACLU complains that the "vague grant language" might "have a chilling effect on civil liberties." An ACLU board member said the rules sounded too much like the anti-terrorist Patriot Act and seemed "to have arisen out of this kind of climate of fear and intimidation or something that the administration is pushing," The New York Sun reports.

We don't see the foundations' rules as an attempt to crush civil liberties. But the guidelines might have a "chilling effect" on terrorists. We hope so.

[Bernard]

Sounds like a racket to me.

Or, PBS.

[VOA]

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.

Just another proof of the truth: "if you want more of something, just subsidize it".

[VOA]

ACLU claims they have the "right to free speech and the right to demonstrate" amazing huh?

I'm no expert on the ACLU, but here's my inexpert conclusion having grown up
doing a bit of "ACLU-watching".
When the ACLU does this sort of thing, I call it "nice window-dressing".

Their real aim in this sort of case is to protect the really obnoxious groups like
Hare Krishnas, etc.

The ACLU got kudos from some conservatives when they did some work that
was on the behalf of Richard Nixon (to protect privacy of some of his papers?).

But the story is told that when Nixon died, the ACLU closed their offices
in observance of his passing...for a very short time (like one minute).

My summation, the ACLU is at best a necessary parasite on our relatively free legal system.
At worst, they are a pernicious virus intent on destroying our relatively
free culture by enshrining moral chaos as a common value.

[KwasiOwusu]

"The ACLU forced the City to cancel an ordinance that banned anyone arrested and convicted in the inner city from showing up there again for a year (if they did not live there). 80% of the crimes in our inner city are committed by nonresidents of the neighborhood"

Typical. The ACLU destruction and mayhem continues unabated.
The way I see it, conservatives need to create their own group of really tough lawyers, raise funds, and find ways of using the law to frustrate and defeat the ACLU.
What often happens is, the ACLU takes on organizations, schools, counties, etc etc, which simply don't have too much money lying about, to waste fighting an endless court battle against the super well financed ACLU, which continues to receive huge amounts of money from America haters like George Soros.
We really don't have any choice but to fight these guys.
The ACLU will clearly not rest until America is reduced into a weak, ineffective third world wasteland, with a very high crime rate to boot , and mayhem and chaos everywhere.
The ACLU's evil agenda must be stopped.

[GSlob]

Well, since ACLU declined the money, methinks the Free Republic could find some use for it toward the noble purposes of promoting civic discourse and dissemination of the important thoughts and materials pertinent to it.

[jpsb]

In 1976, Congress passed the Civil Rights Attorneys Fee Awards Act

I think it is long past time to repeal that law. That one sounds like a cash cow for lawyers.

[shubi]

Yep, we need to destroy the ACLU before they destroy what makes this country great.