Thread: ACLU vs. The People?

July 8, 2011

ACLU vs. The People?
Blair Lee

I’ve been a member and financial supporter of the American Civil Liberties Union for 25 years despite opposing almost every cause it champions (abortion, gay marriage, death penalty repeal, higher taxes, etc.).

Yet, every year I stroke a check because the ACLU provides a vital service protecting my individual rights and liberties against majority infringement. Time and again the ACLU invokes the Constitution’s Bill of Rights on behalf of unpopular clients, pro bono, because all of us are only as free as the least of us is free.

That’s why it pains me to see the ACLU’s Maryland chapter go astray of this worthy mission by trying to block the people’s right to referendum.

Earlier this year, the legislature and Gov. O’Malley enacted the Dream Act extending in-state tuition rates at state colleges and universities to illegal aliens who meet certain criteria.

Opponents passionately argue that rewarding illegal immigration encourages more of the same and punishes legal immigrants who played by the rules. Nor can we afford millions in tuition breaks to help illegals take our kids’ places in college.

Proponents passionately argue that the children of illegals shouldn’t pay for their parent’s sins and, if the law grants them K-12 schooling, why not college, too? Besides, only the best and brightest can meet the qualifications, and don’t we want these kids in our economy instead of in our prisons?

Also, race and economics play an unspoken role in this public debate. Would Maryland’s Dream Act be so contentious if the economy was booming and if the illegals were English and French?

When Dream Act opponents lost in Annapolis, they decided to pursue one of our state’s basic freedoms, the people’s right to take a legislative act to referendum. Under Maryland law, if petitioners can gather signatures from 55,736 voters (3 percent of the votes cast in the last state election) by July 1, then the law is suspended and put before the voters as a ballot question in the next election (November 2012).

But this petition process is very strict and time constrained. Every signature must be accompanied by a copy of the bill in question (or a “fair and accurate summaryâ€

Yet, every year I stroke a check because the ACLU provides a vital service protecting my individual rights and liberties against majority infringement. Time and again the ACLU invokes the Constitution’s Bill of Rights on behalf of unpopular clients, pro bono, because all of us are only as free as the least of us is free.

I'm a bit surprised that Mr. Lee is just now seeing the ACLU with open eyes, for what they really are. Even after many years of donating to them, he apparently still thought the ACLU was actually about "protecting individual rights and liberties against majority infringement".

No, Mr. Lee, the ACLU is an organization with a clear political agenda, which includes open-borders. They have a whole department headed by ethnocentrics who are devoted just to continuing the full-fledged invasion of the U.S. They drool at the thought of so many potential victims and Progressive voters. They pant with excitement in anticipation of how much more important and powerful they will be, when we are finally The North American Union, instead of just the United States. Their new name will be the NACLU.

Hopefully, with each new ridiculous action the ACLU takes, such as this one opposing U.S. citizen voter's rights in MD, they will lose more donors and supporters like Mr. Lee.