A Major Dispute in the ACLU

A Major Dispute in the ACLU

For nearly a half century the American Civil Liberties Union functioned, to quote the late Elmer Rice, as “a nonpolitical, nonpartisan, nonsectarian organization whose sole purpose is the protection and perpetuation of those rights and liberties guaranteed by the Bill of Rights to every American.” By carefully refraining from taking sides on what Rice called “debatable questions of doctrine, dogma, propriety, or morality,” the ACLU established an enviable reputation as a politically disinterested but highly effective guardian of “the rights of the individual within the structure of the law,” an organization in which people of varying political views could work together for the common end of civil libe...


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