A Once Great Institution Craters

For John, BLUF:  Yup, I mailed off my letter to the Executive Director earlier this week, asking them to take me off their list, as I no longer saw the ACLU as aligned with my civil rights views.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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American Civil Liberties Union, RIP

Here is the sub-headline:

The ACLU no longer even pretends to believe in civil liberties.

From The Volokh Conspiracy, by Law Professor David E. Bernstein, 17 November 2018.

Here is the first sentence:

In the late 1960s, the ACLU was a small but powerful liberal organization devoted to a civil libertarian agenda composed primarily of devotion to freedom of speech, free exercise of religion, and the rights of accused criminals.

And here is how the article ends:

Meanwhile, yesterday, the Department of Education released a proposed new Title IX regulation that provides for due process rights for accused students that had been prohibited by Obama-era guidance. Shockingly, even to those of us who have followed the ACLU's long, slow decline, the ACLU tweeted in reponse that the proposed regulation "promotes an unfair process, inappropriately favoring the accused." Even longtime ACLU critics are choking on the ACLU, of all organizations, claiming that due proess protections "inappropriately favor the accuse."

The ACLU had a clear choice between the identitarian politics of the feminist hard left, and retaining some semblance of its traditional commitment to fair process. It chose the former. And that along with the Kavanaugh end signals the final end of the ACLU as we knew it. RIP.

It is sad, very sad.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff