Can the ACLU Serve Progressives, Libertarians, and Conservatives?

ACLU legal director Ben Wizner warns that Donald Trump’s war on dissent endangers the First Amendment, urges Americans to protect speech they dislike, and reflects on Edward Snowden’s enduring legacy.

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Can the ACLU Serve Progressives, Libertarians, and Conservatives?

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The Reason Interview with Nick Gillespie goes deep with the artists, activists, entrepreneurs, policymakers, and visionaries who are making the world more libertarian—or at least more interesting—by championing free minds and free markets.

Today's guest is Ben Wizner, deputy legal director at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). He says that President Donald Trump's second term has brought an all-out assault on free speech—targeting comedians, immigrants, universities, and even law firms that take the "wrong" cases.

Gillespie and Wizner put Trump's actions in the context of past presidents and discuss whether the ACLU has strayed from the days of defending the free speech rights of American Nazis in Skokie, Illinois, Unite the Right protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, and the National Rifle Association (NRA) in New York.

They also discuss the legacy of Edward Snowden, with whom Wizner worked, and whether government spying on citizens has gotten better since the whistleblower revealed illegal mass surveillance of Americans during the Obama administration.

 

0:00—Introduction

1:04—Free speech under Trump

5:33—Comparing Trump to Biden on free speech

9:42—Have Americans become more comfortable with censorship?

16:21—The Federal Communications Commission and Jimmy Kimmel

25:43—What are Trump's standards for protected speech?

28:46—ACLU cases protecting the speech of immigrants

40:12—Why the ACLU defended the NRA

45:02—Has the ACLU remained committed to its mission?

53:52—Protecting the rights of students on college campuses

55:46—Snowden and the state of mass surveillance

• Producer: Paul Alexander
• Audio Mixer: Ian Keyser

Comments

[Social Justice is neither]

Can they, sure. Will they? No.
. Fucking commie scum can GDIAF

[MasterThief]

I don't know that they can in practice. ACLU has been a captured partisan organization for decades and there is little evidence that theyare willing to defend the right.
FIRE is a more modern version that initially mostly took on cases of the right being censored but was willing to defend both sides. They have since flipped and almost exclusively protect the left.

[Mother's Lament]

Yeah that was disappointing because they were my go to when the ACLU got hijacked.

[Eeyore]

I'm sure there are still some individuals there that are trying. The organization as a whole can go in the same bin with Cato.

Organizations like this have the real risk of failing to live up to the original charter. Instead of creating one big endowment with your wealth when you die, diversify and spread that shit around. Otherwise the world is better off if you just spend it all on hookers and blow - now - while you are still alive. Bill Gates wealth will probably end up causing death and suffering for hundreds of years after he is done with this life.

[LIBtranslator]

Speaking of original charters, the 1972 LP platform grew at 11% per year in 1972 with a slope of 42. Then infiltrating "helpers" doubled the word count and slope went to 4 in 1980, turned negative in '84 and never returned to 2 until 2016. Thanks to the Jesus Caucus we now have votes, membership and funding all converging on zero. The LP needs a reset to the original platform--and mebbe a rope.

[Chumby]

More access to horseless carriages. And goddammit, more Comstock.

[Mother's Lament]

The ACLU was once high on my list of respected institutions and I even donated to the a few times through my American brother-in-law.
But they threw that all away to become DNC mouthpieces and take (D)ecidedly anti civil-liberties stances in favour of party narratives.

Pretty much everything they say nowadays is worthless because of their activities of the past decade.

[Use the Schwartz]

ACLU except number 2.

[swillfredo pareto]

...except number 2.

I have not noticed any civility from them to either property rights or free association either.

/poop emoji.

[Stuck in California]

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[Dillinger]

>>ACLU legal director Ben Wizner warns that Donald Trump’s war on dissent endangers the First Amendment

ACLU is feckless with the warning and the endangering

[Chumby]

The former director of the Maine chapter of the ACLU, Shenna Bellows (D), is currently the Pine Tree State’s SoS.

Under Bellows’ watch, hundreds of election ballots mysteriously ended up in the hands of a private citizen instead of the intended election board.

In 2024, Bellows removed DJT from the Republican primary ballot until a scotus decision compelled the state to reverse that action by Bellows.

[Mother's Lament]

7:22 - The civil servants getting fired and soldiers being kicked out of the military for refusing the Covid shot, and the mass censorship of millions of Americans on social media for saying that just maybe the pandemic didn't start at a Chinese farmer's market, are "routine" and common to every president.

This guy isn't just disingenuous, he's actively making excuses for one of the biggest violations of American's civil liberties in the republic's history.

The ACLU has become anti-civil liberties in a certain (D)irection. This is true fascism.

[Chumby]

Must (D)efend The Narrative

[Overt]

ACLU chapters around the country SUED schools to force children to wear masks and stick needles in their arm.

I don't care if you think masks worked or not. I don't care if you think vaccinations worked or not. If you think those "good things" are so good that you can FORCE citizens to do them, you are not on the side of Civil Liberty and you should abandon the moniker.

Again this isn't just that they hypocritically stayed silent while their buddies on the left bullied children in school. They actively joined in the hazing. If this asshat Wizner had any principle, he would spend at least some token breaths clearing his throat and admitting that they were wrong.

But he won't.

[Chumby]

The ACLU was trying to reduce the number of bears in trunks. Reluctantly and strategically.

[InsaneTrollLogic (smarter than The Average Dude)]

Yeah, the ACLU completely lost me when they pulled that bullshit. As far as I’m currently concerned, fuck them.

[Michael Ejercito]

I am old enough to remember when the ACLU was against vaccine mandates for nurses during the Swine Flu pandemic.

[Truthteller1]

The answer is no, the ACLU serves only one master, which isn't "civil liberties".

[Rick James]

9:42—Have Americans become more comfortable with censorship?9:42—Have Americans become more comfortable with censorship?

*Looks at the 4.5 years of COVID hysteria and the ACLU's response to it*

Yes, very.

[Rick James]

Oh, if you think the ACLU can serve conservatives and progressives, I submit not:

The ACLU of Massachusetts today renewed calls for an equitable COVID-19 response, including collecting race and ethnicity data on testing and treatment. It is crucial that the state government do everything in its power to ensure equitable access to testing and treatment during this pandemic, wrote the ACLU of Massachusetts in a letter released today.

“The cumulative effect of racial disparities in health care, the criminal legal system, the workforce, among other areas, makes the threat posed by COVID-19 particularly dangerous and urgent for Black and brown communities nationwide,” said Carol Rose, executive director of the ACLU of Massachusetts. “Massachusetts can lead the nation in protecting public health while also ensuring that our statewide response takes into account these existing disparities and protects the health and safety of all people.”

[Rick James]

Civil liberties are at their most vulnerable at times of crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. As with wars, political strife, economic downfalls, and natural disasters, it’s all too easy for governmental and other seats of power to declare civil liberties a luxury.

Indeed, with you there, ACLU!

But not on our watch. The ACLU has been fighting for civil liberties for 100 years through crises of national, state, and local proportions.

Awesome, so what's the plan?

In keeping with this legacy, the ACLU of Southern California is demanding that those liberties framed by the U.S. and state constitutions be upheld during the current pandemic.

Nice, what are you asking for?

Attorneys, organizers, and others from the ACLU SoCal are reaching out to numerous agencies to remind them that we’re counting on them to protect the health and safety of all Californians while never losing sight of our rights and civil liberties.

Uh, hmm... *looks around* why is this beginning to look like a 'balancing act'? But what about mask mandates and forced vacc...

This includes due process rights, protections for vulnerable populations such as incarcerated people, and equal access to care regardless of immigration status.

*facepalm*

In a campaign aimed at reducing jails population, the ACLU SoCal has asked the district attorneys, public defenders offices, and presiding judges to eliminate or greatly reduce bail amounts. We also urged that court proceedings be modified to reduce the number of in-person appearances.

So, letting people out of prison is the priority here?

[Rick James]

The ACLU SoCal — in coalition with the ACLU affiliates in Northern California and San Diego & Imperial Counties — reached out to the California Department of Public Health in regard to the state’s homeless shelters. These facilities, far too-often plagued with severely unhygienic and unsafe conditions, are especially in danger of COVID-19 outbreaks.

You oughta see the conditions outside the shelters, you ACLU cunts!

FYI, for those who don't live in an bluer-than-blue-found-in-nature-blue city, this is a clever game used by the Homelessness Industrial Complex to keep the homeless on the street.

The ACLU is an active participant in that destabilizing Marxist dream: Keep the homeless on the street in horrific conditions at all costs. It's more useful that way if we're going to destroy the nation-state, break up the nuclear family and bring about the end of the late-stage capitalist order, thus bringing about The End of History.

[Mother's Lament]

1. Target a respected institution
2. Kill & clean it
3. Wear it as a skin suit, while demanding the respect it was given

#Democrats

[Rev Arthur L kuckland (5-30-24 banana republic day)]

Same reason hamas starves the palistienians

[Zeb]

Thanks for the reminder. ACLU is pretty much irredeemable at this point.

[Rick James]

Here are the major priorities of the ACLU:

Defend the rights of all people nationwide.
With immigrant rights, trans justice, reproductive freedom, and more at risk, we’re in courts and communities across the country to protect everyone’s rights — and we need you with us.

Immigrants
trans
abortion

Speech isn't even fucking listed. Fuck off ACLU.

[Incunabulum]

Can it? Of course it can - it used to.

But those in it today do not want to do so anymore.

[Gaear Grimsrud]

I'm old enough to remember Skokie. This is not your grandfather's ACLU. Trust me on this.

[Rev Arthur L kuckland (5-30-24 banana republic day)]

Why is it different? The aclu defended only socialists then

[Rick James]

Socialists, National Socialists... the list is long.

[Gaear Grimsrud]

Point taken.

[Rick James]

More ACLU priorities:

The Systemic Equality agenda includes specific policy asks of the Biden-Harris administration and Congress that will advance societal equity for and empower the civic participation of Black and Indigenous people of color, close the racial wealth gap, and seek reconciliation for our racist past. These asks include:

Protecting and expanding voting rights
Student loan debt forgiveness
Affirmatively furthering fair housing
Expanding access to financial services through the Post Office
Establishing a permanent child tax credit
Extending high speed internet access
Passing legislation on reparations

[...]

As a part of the Systemic Equality legal strategy, ACLU litigators will seek to end algorithmic bias and promote equity in artificial intelligence; strike down laws that criminalize the discipline of Black and Brown students; address barriers to reentry such as housing and education access for returning citizens; and tackle redistricting.

[...]

In addition, the ACLU is making internal commitments to equity, diversity, inclusion and belonging. The organization will hire Black-owned and Black-led contractors and consultants, and invest in Black-owned financial institutions and businesses. ACLU staff will also be encouraged to adopt restorative justice practices to address conflicts.

These people are not about civil rights. They're just a roving agency racializing the American polity through lawsuits and other actions which have nothing to do with civil rights at all. Reparations are definitionally a violation of the rights of the citizenry. It's a collective punishment against the citizens of the country.

[LIBtranslator]

Two outta three in this case is worse!

[Neutral not Neutered]

Does anyone actually take the ACLU seriously? They have squashed dissent more than most organizations by pushing everything left. Were they not a large part of the woke and D.I.E. ideology?