Is the ACLU Good for America?
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Is the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) good for America?
The intent of creating ACLU was to protect and preserve the First Amendment rights, equal defense under the law, due process, and the right to privacy. Currently, ACLU works to extend rights to groups who had initially been denied those rights through community outreach and education, legislation, and litigation. ACLU has advanced civil liberties, and this paper seeks to support its progression undertakings for the benefit of Americans.
Throughout its existence, fortunes of ACLU have enlarged and diminished at equal measure, as it has the tendency to draw or lose affiliates following the engagements it assumes. The growing and declining depict ACLU’s triumph at protecting and sustaining freedoms stipulated in the Bill of Rights (Mineshima, 2009). The ACLU has overcome literary suppression, seclusion, forbidding and strange penalties, gender disparity, and desecrations of the right to privacy and freedom of religion (ProCon.org, 2017). On the other, the argument that liberty needs to be defended from the ACLU is contrary to the slogan of ACLU of freedom cannot defend itself, therefore necessitating the dire need of ACLU to protect against erosion of civil liberties.
Since its inception, ACLU has worked to rightfully earn its reputation as the foremost protector of human rights to freedom of worship, and the principal challenger of the federal government utility to religious convictions and lawful administration of religious creeds. This works in favor of creating a clear distinction between the government and religious activities. ACLU advocates for singling out the arenas for religious activities, including places of worship, schools, and individual homesteads (ProCon.org, 2017). The ACLU protects the religion against the invasion of the government to ensure that there is no secularization of religious undertakings as well as undermining such activities (Mineshima, 2009). On the other hand, the attack directed towards ACLU based on its support of same-sex marriages contradicts its noble responsibility of ensuring there are equal rights to all citizens of American, which includes preventing the discrimination of LGBTQ individuals (ACLU.org, 2020).
The ACLU has established itself and its commitment towards protecting the rights of civil liberties, including those of minority groups. The ACLU has an extended and satisfactory past of publicly voicing out its preservation of the sovereignties defined to American citizens as enshrined in the Bill of Rights under the Constitution (Mineshima, 2009). The ACLU pursues to avert the “tyranny of the majority” from doing away with the elementary freedoms of minorities (ProCon.org, 2017). The opposing side advances that siding with minorities undermines the foundations of democracy, majority rule with the claim that minorities gain power over the majority (ACLU.org, 2020). Democracy sides with the majority opinion, siding with the minority when their rights are infringed only cements the equality and equity in freedom among all citizens.
The ACLU does not support criminals and their criminal acts. It only supports impartial, unbiased, and judicious law enforcement. The ACLU is grounded on the notion that individuals are eligible to a nondiscriminatory court trial and entire human rights of the due process made certain in the Bill of Rights (ProCon.org, 2017). On the other hand, the nicknaming of the ACLU by the former Attorney General, Ed Meese, as “criminals’ lobby,” dented the image of ACLU on its defense of criminals (ACLU.org, 2020). This utterance is baseless as ACLU only preserves the rights the criminals are entitled to without any biased support towards them or their crimes (Mineshima, 2009).
Despite being in existence over the reign of seventeen presidents, ACLU has stayed independent on its duty towards upholding civil rights and protecting civil freedoms notwithstanding of the head of state in office. The unbiased nature of the ACLU for civil rights and liberties has enabled it to face encounters and maximize open chances to advocate equal justice for all Americans, particularly during tyrannical reigns (ProCon.org, 2017). The opposing side advances the notion of the ACLU being unreliable when expressing one’s freedom of speech while holding a gun. It is clearly stipulated the boundaries within which the ACLU operates; ACLU has no authority to control the use of firearms; therefore, its role on gun use and regulation is nonexistent in its responsibility (Mineshima, 2009).
The ACLU has been at the forefront and stepped up their efforts in defending women’s rights to confidentiality chiefly women’s right to have power and authority over their bodies and fertility, and the response to the necessities of their individualistic conscience. The increasing menace to women’s access to birth control and pregnancy termination further cements the ACLU’s role in defending women’s rights (ProCon.org, 2017). The opposing side purports that the ACLU is not a friend to unborn babies; however the ACLU is only trying to advocate for women to have control over their lives and the children that they sire (Annas, 2004). This includes making the abortion drug available at local pharmacies without the intervention of medical physicians for timely Do-It-Yourself abortion (ACLU.org, 2020).
The ACLU has no affiliations towards politics or political engagements. Hence, it does not subject affiliation tendencies to its members when processing their membership. However, the ACLU and its members have been accused of being communists in years gone, particularly in the course of the McCarty era (ACLU.org, 2020). The ACLU members are free to be affiliated with any inclinations of their preference (ProCon.org, 2017). They are free to be Democrats, Republicans, Federalists, Communists, or associates of any political leaning of their choice. There have been accusations of the ACLU forced liberal Communistic and Socialistic agenda on Americans on mass rallies during Trump’s presidential campaigns in conjunction with Muslim Congressman, Keith Ellison (ACLU.org, 2020). These accusations are unjustifiable, as the ACLU has no affiliations to Communists or Socialists agendas, but its members and associates are free to advance the agendas of their inclinations.
Despite the controversies that have surrounded the ACLU undertakings and its operations in meeting its mandate, it has remained steadfast towards serving the Americans through the protection and defending the rights and liberties of American citizens. It is nonpartisan in executing its constitutionally defined duties, with the focus being on the preservation of fundamental rights to privacy.
References
ACLU.org. (2020). ACLU100 History Series. Retrieved on April 30, 2020, from https://www.aclu.org/issues/free-speech/aclu-100-history-series
Annas, G. J. (2004). The rights of patients: the authoritative ACLU guide to the rights of patients (Vol. 1). NYU Press.
Mineshima, D. (2009). American Civil Liberties Union. Retrieved on April 30, 2020, from https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/1166/american-civil-liberties-union
ProCon.org. (2017). R Top 10 Pro and Con Arguments: Is the ACLU Good for America? Retrieved on April 30, 2020, from https://aclu.procon.org/top-10-pro-con-arguments/