Reason Writers Around Town: Bill Flanigen on the ACLU's Hypocrisy on Terrorist Watch Lists
In today's New York Post, Reason's Bill Flanigen takes the ACLU to task for having it both ways on terrorist watch lists. A snippet:
In 2004, ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero signed the organization up for the Combined Federal Campaign—a government program that facilitates charitable giving by federal employees. Participation, [ACLU member and critic Wendy] Kaminer wrote, was expected to net the ACLU about $500,000 a year.
But the contract included a distressing requirement: The ACLU would have to check its employee rolls against federal watch lists.
It's already illegal to employ anyone on the government's Specially Designated Global Terrorists or Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons lists, but that doesn't mean that the ACLU had to volunteer compliance with those laws in exchange for money—specially when the ACLU was and remains concerned about the effect of watch lists on civil rights and liberties.
When the ACLU signed onto the CFC, it became complicit in government practices that its new report [which criticizes the CFC] says "are neither fair nor effective, and are undermining American values of due process and fairness."