William Marvel: Adios, ACLU

I used to illustrate my fundamentally centrist political viewpoint by explaining that I carried membership cards for both the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Rifle Association. Rank conservatives would shake their heads at the former, and rabid liberals would back away in horror at the latter, but it seemed perfectly logical to me. Both groups were dedicated to preserving our civil liberties.

My earliest images of the ACLU involved lawyers defending the right of the Ku Klux Klan or the American Nazi Party to hold public demonstrations. The group was originally founded in the wake of World War I, when antiwar protestors were still being attacked and imprisoned for vocal opposition to our involvement in that conflict. Then, for the next two decades, the ACLU defended racial minorities against legalized racism in the South and Midwest. The organization stood up for labor unions, defended freedom of speech and fought police brutality.