I’m probably not telling you anything you don’t already know, but the ACLU is no longer an organization advocating for civil liberties. Gone are the days of, for example, protecting speech for all. At some point over the past two decades, the ACLU decided on which issues it would opine. In each case, the issue corresponds with the left side of the aisle. For an organization that by law is not permitted to be partisan, the ACLU has found a way around it. Why they made this change I can’t tell you because when I have emailed the Colorado office to ask, it’s been crickets (and I have tried more than once).
The other day I got a press release from the ACLU about immigration rights in northern Colorado and I realized — you know which press release I never received? The one condemning a firebombing of individuals in Boulder, expressing their First Amendment rights. You know which press release I never received? The one mourning the death of a woman who was killed in that firebombing.
Here is what I have received, however, from ACLU Colorado: Press releases calling for protecting the rights of anti-Israel protestors on Auraria campus and protecting the First Amendment rights of an anti-Israel artist in Eagle County.
According to the ACLU, the rights of students spouting hate on Auraria is a civil liberty worth protecting, but the rights of a woman to call for the release of hostages is not.
I can’t think of a better illustration of Orwell’s observation: “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”
The probem with the ACLU’s political alignment, much as it was with Animal Farm’s Napolean (i.e. Stalin), is that once one group’s rights are privileged over another’s, rights for everyone deteriorate. The ACLU might be helping its chosen constituents, but it is harming civil liberties for society as a whole.
Shana Goldberg may be reached at shana@ijn.com
© IJN 2025
