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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsACLU Will No Longer Defend Gun-Carrying Protest Groups
SNIP
On Thursday, the ACLU made a statement specifying that it would not defend groups that wanted to incite violence or march armed to the teeth, the Los Angeles Times reported.
We review each request for help on a case-by-case basis, but take the clear position that the 1st Amendment does not protect people who incite or engage in violence, the statement, from three California ACLU affiliates, said.
If white supremacists march into our towns armed to the teeth and with the intent to harm people, they are not engaging in activity protected by the United States Constitution, the statement continued. The 1st Amendment should never be used as a shield or sword to justify violence.
Waldo Jaquith, a former member of the ACLU Virginia board, had already resigned over the groups decision to defend far-right activists. I just resigned from the ACLU of Virginia board, he wrote on Twitter. Whats legal and whats right are sometimes different. I wont be a fig leaf for Nazis.
http://www.newsweek.com/free-speech-hate-speech-aclu-civil-liberties-donald-trump-652050
redstatebluegirl
(12,265 posts)frazzled
(18,402 posts)They must've read this Op-Ed yesterday in the New York Times, "The A.C.L.U. Needs to Rethink Free Speech" (which got quite a few responses). Just read the whole damned thing. It addresses the issue of armed protesters, but also the vast inequalities in access to free speech in our country that have zero to do with the First Amendment: race, poverty, policing inequities:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/17/opinion/aclu-first-amendment-trump-charlottesville.html
Phoenix61
(17,021 posts)HeartachesNhangovers
(816 posts)2 different statements, although the LA Times doesn't provide either statement in its entirety or link to them, but these statements (which I can't actually find) seem to be limited to white supremacist groups. According to the Times, the national ACLU says:
Then, separately, the Times says that the 3 ACLU chapters in California say:
So this is also about white supremacists. Since CA is a "no-open-carry" state, the CA statement isn't really about guns at all.