What exactly is the goal of the ACLU?

Question

Besides the right to burn flags, to give child molesters the right to sit in parks, to take away all Christians the right to display the Nativity scene , to rid the world of the 10 commandments, etc so on

You are wrong mr phd,..I will try to find it , but a guy somewhere in Iowa was a repeat offender,the mayor and city concil in this town told him he was not allowed in parks od the town cause the guy admitted to still having fantasies about kids, the aclu fought and won his right to sit in parks AND FANTISIZE ABOUT KIDS!!! As long as he didnt touch them, he has that right accoring to the ACLU ,..wtf is that??

Answer 1

ACLU = SCUM BAGS

Answer 2

Perhaps the most famous free speech issue of the ACLU's history, and certainly one that had the greatest impact on the organization, was the pitched battle over American Nazis' right to parade through Skokie, Illinois in 1977. Half the town's 70,000 ci tizens were Jewish, and about 1,000 were Holocaust survivors, but this did not dissuade the ACLU (then headed by Aryeh Neier who was Jewish) from taking on the Nazis' cause in what the ACLU considered a "classic First Amendment case."

Brown v. Board of Education, which overturned Plessy v. Ferguson and tolled the end of government-endorsed segregation was one of many cases in which the ACLU worked together with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to win rights for African-Americans.

The ACLU's accomplishments during the twentieth century helped to ensure that unpopular views would be tolerated, and indirectly , to remind people that it is an uncommon nation that commonly tolerates challenges to the majority.

Answer 3

None of the above.

But good job taking each of the major recent cases and completely misquoting the issue to prove your point. Wrong, but very effective.

If you actually care about an answer to your question, their goal is to support and defend the rights enshrined in the US Constitution, primarily the Bill of Rights. They mainly take 1st Amendment cases, but some others as well.

The Bill of Rights is written as a limitation on government action. The ACLU works to ensure that the government continues to abide by those restrictions. In other words, that the government follows its own rules.

The ACLU doesn't care what private citizens do or say, or where they pray, or what they put on their lawns. In fact, the ACLU has fought to ensure that you can do and say whatever you want, march where ever you want, follow whatever religion wherever you want. And all of that regardless of your particular faith or viewpoint.

Now, to address each of the case you mis-quoted. The ACLU fought for people's rights to express an opinion that was unpopular, citing a over century of Supreme Court opinion that said the government cannot allow one side of a debate to express themselves without also allowing the other side of the debate. So, if people wanted to wave the flag proudly as a symbol of their support for the nation, people must also be allowed to express their disapproval of what our leaders are doing using the same symbol. No viewpoint-based discrimination.

The child-molester case was a Georgia or Alabama law that basically required anyone ever convicted of a sexual offense to not live within one-quarter mile of any place that children gathered, including school bus stops. The problem with that last bit is that most bus stops are within 1/2 mile of each other across entire counties. So, the law would have required these people (yes, criminals, but who have served their time) to move out of the counties, and potentially to have to move again every time a new school bus stop was created. That's a 5th Amendment takings and Due Process violation.

{INSERT} OK. The Iowa case. Look at the facts. The government wanted to punish someone for what he was thinking. Purely for what he was thinking. That is a pure constitutional violation, because opinion and belief (and yes, fantasies) are absolutely protected from government regulation. If someone is a criminal punish them. If you don't like the laws change it. But you can't go around punishing people purely because of what they are thinking.

Christians can display Nativity scenes or the 10 Commandments all they want. But a government cannot put up the symbols of only one religion, saying in effect that this is the only religion we endorse and that all other religions are secondary. That's a 1st Amendment violation of the Establishment clause.

In contrast, the ACLU has fought for Christian groups to ensure that they have equal access to public facilities and school resources, the same as every other personal or religious organization. In other words, Christianity doesn't get any special treatment, for or against it. That's what the constitution requires, and the ACLU fights to hold the government to those restrictions.

I'm sorry that you think the government should able to ignore the constitution at will, or that one particular religion should be allowed to become dominant through government endorsement. But that's not what this country was founded upon, and fortunately, we have an organization that is trying to remind our government of that.

Answer 4

To protect civil liberties....

All the things you cite are things that are aguably civil rights (constitutional) infringment.

I don't like people burning flags but would not deny their right to do so as a form of protest. That's what freedom of speech is about.

I don't have an issue with the 10 commandments or Nativity scene in public places, but others would as that implies a government endorsement of a christian religion. How about we put a jewish, muslim, hindu, shinto, etc. symbol on public land during their holidays? Would you be ok with that?

ACLU can be wacko sometimes but I'd rather have somebody fiercly looking after our civil rights.

Answer 5

If you were slightly interested you would read their mission statement.

They protect and preserve the constitution. No one else is doing it it. Especially the guy who swore that it was his job.

BTW flag burning is prescribed by law as the only means of disposal of a tarnished flag. If you have a soiled flag you should turn it in to the National Guard to be burned.

Go big Red Go

Answer 6

To defend the Bill of Rights. This includes free speech, separation of church and state, etc. If you want a naivety scene, put it in front of your church. If you are stupid enough to burn the flag - feel free. I might kick you *** just for spite, but you should have the right to be stupid

The ACLU has never defending a child molesters right to sit in the park.

Answer 7

The ACLU sides with anything the Democrats stand for ......there main goal is too spread their communist crap as much as they can..... it is sad too see that they have pulled the wool over the minorities eyes saying they actually stand up for and care about them.....if one believes that then they are blind and dumb and love being kept in the dark and feed ****

Answer 8

To protect civil liberties.

Note that it is NOT to protect liberty, but "civil liberties." The latter are the rights or abilities given to you by the government, whether or not these are consistent with liberty more generally.

For example, civil libertarians would argue that a racist ******** can't have his/her own restaurant that disallows some race, the reason being that there is a law saying store-owners cannot discriminate based on race. ...so each of us as a civil right to enter the restaurant, even if we are a race the racist irrationally hates.

But libertarians would say that the racist ******** has a right to run his own business however he wishes. He has a right to be an ******** (and we can shun him and boycott him).

In reality, the ACLU is not just a civil liberty promoting group. If so, they would be out there defending gun civil rights as much as other civil rights. They focus on only certain kinds of civil rights. (That is not necessarily a criticism, since any organization has its own specialized angle.)

Answer 9

To protect your civil rights. Rush Limbaugh used the ACLU to represent him in his little fiasco a few months ago. What a hypocrite. He always puts them down and then runs to them when he felt threatend. I'm not a lover of the ACLU but they do do a necessary job in our democracy. For every bad thing you mentioned above, they have done at least 1,000 good things for American citizens to protect their civil rights.

Answer 10

AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION.

CIVIL LIBERTIES
ring a bell?

We have a thing called seperation of church and state. The nativity scene, nor the 10 commandments have NO right being in a public building.
Burning the flag has been found constitutional over and over - it is a form of freedom of speech.

They fight for YOUR rights too. The right to ***** about the ACLU and post this question!

Answer 11

Destroy the American way of life, help the terrorists at GITMO and world wide, release all of the criminals in our prison system. S T O P T H E A C L U !!!!!