Slashdot Mirror
ACLU Sues DHS Over Unlawful Searches and Detention
gavron writes "The ACLU has filed suit against DHS to stop the TSA from conducting illegal searches and detention. In the case at hand, TSA detained a Ron Paul staffer who was carrying $4,300 in cash in a metal box. The suit seeks to focus TSA searches on things having to do with increasing security on aircraft, instead of their current practice of 4th-amendment-violating searches, such as those of laptops, iPods, etc."
The ACLU like any civil liberties organization must take a definitive view of what they believe the constitution means then defend that position regardless of how other laws, congress or the courts acts on those issues. The ACLU since it's founding has taken the position that the second amendment is a collective right, not an individual right. This position was also the position of our courts since the supreme court decision in 1939 United states vs. Miller that upheld a ban on sawed off shotguns. The recent decision D.C. vs. Heller appears to reverse that position but the ACLU wouldn't be a civil rights organization if they didn't hold their own positions rather than the popular or contemporaneous answer the courts provide.
And before the page you linked was updated for the Heller decision it strictly noted that they didn't feel it was their issue to defend because organizations like the NRA are solely devoted to it and have been attempting to bring challenges to the supreme court yearly for the last 20 years (and failing every single year except for the very recent guns are a collective right. This is no way diminishes the ACLU as they still provide defense of civil liberties, just because you don't agree with their position on the 2nd amendment doesn't mean the organization is somehow less effective. In fact even though they might have a different view of the 2nd amendment than yourself this doesn't mean they are actively supporting gun control, they simply ignore the issue. In my view that is not justification to attack them as many are keen to do (until of course they need them, such as Rush's frequent diatribes on the ACLU defending bad people while at the same time he relied on them to defend him during his drug trial). The simple answer is that if you support all civil rights and gun control is an issue on your mind then you should support both the ACLU and the NRA. Not attack the ACLU and demonize them for failing to spend precious funds on 2nd amendment challenges when the NRA is already carrying that banner. I should also point out that if you don't agree with the ACLU's position on the 2nd amendment the easiest way to change it to join the ACLU and work to change their position from within the organization, not attack them and refuse to support them.
Locally the ACLU is hated because they sued the local school districts a number of times for imposing the dominant religion on all public school students. These attacks occurs even though the ACLU has actively defended this dominant faith in suits more than once where they weren't the dominant faith and were being discriminated against. I've notice many people that refer to the 2nd amendment issue, but when probed their actual hatred is usually related to the ACLU's defense of 1st amendment issues such as the recent lawsuits involving ten commandment displays where other faiths weren't given equal access. People like to pretend they support civil liberties but when it comes to true freedom of religion where all faiths have equal access in government they balk at the prospect and demonize the ACLU for forcing them to provide equal access or stop using the government to foist the dominant faith's view on the masses.