#24 Nadine Strossen
…our view has never been that civil liberties are necessarily coextensive with constitutional rights…

Well, I guess that explains why they don’t call it the American Bill of Rights Union. The right to defend yourself is not a civil liberty unless you’re defending yourself from the government. Of course, a lot of people think the Second Amendment exists for that very purpose.

That would be a good argument if the only people whose rights were being violated were bad.

Most people whose rights are violated have, at some point, broken the law. Sorry, but it’s kinda like Jesus did… in order to protect all our rights they have to help the prostitutes and the murderers.

Could you be a little more specific? I’m not sure what your argument is, and my hunch is that you are mischaracterizing the ACLU’s position. I don’t think the ACLU deliberately seeks to defend “bad people,” nor are their results in most cases limited to affecting the immediate parties. If the ACLU manages to win a case that sets a new, more protective standard for say, Searches and Seizures, the beneficiaries are not just “bad people,” but rather everybody subject to government search and seizure. Everybody benefits, not just “bad people,” whatever you mean by that.

IIRC, out of the first 700 or so posts I looked at shortly after Heller, there were about five that were supportive. I haven’t looked at the other ~300 posted since then.

The basis for my financial support is the great work that they actually do.

I would strongly suggest that you look at the ALCU with a somewhat more discerning eye. The ACLU often makes the argument that they must protect bad people because–even if the rights of good people were respected today–allowing the state to violate the rights of bad people would result in it expanding to attack the rights of good people as well.

That would be a good argument if the only people whose rights were being violated were bad. It is at best, however, a clear mis-allocation of resources to only protect the rights of bad people while ignoring clear violations of the rights of good ones. As it happens, there have been many cases where police have demonstrated a preference to go after mostly-good people rather than bad ones. This tendency should alarm anyone who’s actually interested in civil liberties, but the tactics of the ACLU actually encourage such behavior.

#15 Greg C.

ALL rights are individual rights. Right? Right?

Well said. Go ahead and take the rest of the day off. You earned it.

That guy should get a freaking life. All he’s doing is showing he’s a bigot. He’s also making a great google search for his future employers. Now there’s divine justice for you…

Its a goddamned cracker. Or godblessed, depending on your imagination. Still, a cracker. Maybe holey, not holy.