ACLU Uses Data Mining to Profile Donors/Members

slutdot writes "This NYT story tells of the ACLU's use of data mining in order to collect a wide variety of information about its members and donors in a fund-raising effort. The ACLU's own website has a page dedicated to privacy and technology."

Comments

Re:Except for when it suits our purposes.

[CokeBear]

I agree that the second amendment is just as important as the first and the fourth. The second amendment, however, has its very own organization (several, in fact). The ACLU should stick to what it does best: defending the first and fourth amendments, and leave then second amendment to the NRA.

Re:Makes me glad I never gave them money...

[More Trouble]

Of course, I have my own beef with the ACLU, namely that they are very selective about which civil rights they will and will not defend.

These a good links, providing a nuanced view of the question. For instance, ACLU says:

If indeed the Second Amendment provides an absolute, constitutional protection for the right to bear arms in order to preserve the power of the people to resist government tyranny, then it must allow individuals to possess bazookas, torpedoes, SCUD missiles and even nuclear warheads, for they, like handguns, rifles and M-16s, are arms. Moreover, it is hard to imagine any serious resistance to the military without such arms. Yet few, if any, would argue that the Second Amendment gives individuals the unlimited right to own any weapons they please. But as soon as we allow governmental regulation of any weapons, we have broken the dam of Constitutional protection. Once that dam is broken, we are not talking about whether the government can constitutionally restrict arms, but rather what constitutes a reasonable restriction.

This seems like a reasonable perspective on the interpretation of the second amendment.

:w