ACLU Votes Out Another Board Member Who Clashed With Leaders

By JOSH GERSTEIN - Staff Reporter of the Sun
September 12, 2006

Mr. Brittain said some board members strongly objected to his decision to tell others on the board that an attorney from the office of the New York attorney general, Eliot Spitzer, had called to raise concerns that the proposal might interfere with board members' duties to report misconduct. The matter was discussed by the board's executive committee, on which Mr. Brittain sat, but the committee voted over his objection not to disclose the call immediately to the larger board.

The disclosure led to a New YorkTimes article about the call from Mr. Spitzer's office, though Mr. Brittain insists he disclosed the call only to other board members, which is not prohibited by ACLU rules. "Despite the fact that there was no rule or policy, I was vehemently and angrily and hostilely criticized by some," Mr. Brittain said. "It rubbed a lot of people the wrong way.… I didn't have to subject myself to that kind of animosity to serve on a nonprofit board."

Board members said Mr. Brittain may have also ruffled feathers by writing to the ACLU president, Nadine Strossen, to object to the procedure by which the proposals on board responsibilities were repudiated publicly without action by the board or its executive committee.

Last year, the ACLU voted a vocal dissident, Michael Meyers, off its board. Another critic of the organization's leadership, Wendy Kaminer, left in June after choosing not to run for re-election. However, the departure of Mr. Brittain is notable because he was rarely quoted in the press and generally confined his critiques to board meetings and online discussions among board members.

"Is the bar becoming so low that you can't even look askance?" one current ACLU board member, who asked not to be named, said.

Asked if Mr. Brittain's decision to tell board colleagues about the call from Mr. Spitzer's office played a role in his defeat, a board member from Los Angeles, Alan Toy, said: "I think any board member's actions are noticed by the other board members and the electorate at large. You represent a large group of people, and people notice things and they vote accordingly."

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