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The ACLU: What It Means by 'Civil Liberties'
| Article
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12661 |
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Section : |
MODERN THOUGHT
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| Issue
Date : |
6 / 1987 |
5,710 Words |
| Author
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William A. Donohue
William A. Donohue is the author of The Politics of the
American Civil Liberties Union and the New Freedom. He teaches
sociology at La Roche College in Pittsburgh. |
This year we celebrate the bicentennial of the Constitution. Much of the attention has justly centered on the Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the Constitution. The Bill of Rights, which was written in 1789 and formally ratified two years later, is a list of restraints placed on the federal government to ensure individual and states' rights. That is the original meaning of the term civil liberties: individual and states' rights that cannot be vetoed by a majority of the people.
No organization has received more credit for defending the Bill of Rights than the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU's reputation hinges largely on its image as a nonpartisan watchdog of civil liberties. Law professors and the media generally regard the ACLU as a politically disinterested organization, one which seeks to defend civil liberties for all Americans. "The Bill of Rights is our only client" is more than the ACLU's motto; it is accepted as the raison d'etre of the organization.
Over ten years of research on the ACLU has convinced me that its reputation is largely undeserved. From its inception sixty-seven years ago, the ACLU has remained a politically driven, liberal-left partisan, dedicated to the transformation of American society. It uses civil liberties as a means toward its ends.
The ACLU has clearly made significant contributions to freedom in America. For example, it has had more to do with ensuring the free circulation of ideas than any organization in the county. What is not generally recognized, however, is the ACLU's selective approach to civil liberties. The issues it seizes and, more importantly, the conclusions it reaches indicate unmistakably that the agenda of the ACLU supports the agenda of the liberal Left. It is fatuous to pretend otherwise.
The ACLU's history can be divided into four eras: the era of emergence (1920s and 1930s); the era of expedience (1940s and 1950s); the era of expansion (1960s and 1970s); and the fourth era (1980s and 1990s), which might be best described as the era of endurance. Each of these eras roughly corresponds to chapters in the history of American liberalism. As liberalism moved left, or right, so too did the ACLU in enough instances to warrant the connection. Indeed, in many cases the ACLU even changed the course of liberalism.
The Era of Emergence
The ACLU was founded on January 20,
...
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