The previous head of the American Civil Liberties Union has ripped the group for now not defending all free speech — claiming it now cherry-picks instances that match a brand new “progressive” agenda.
Ira Glasser, the ACLU’s government director from 1978 to 2001, bemoaned the group for not too long ago altering its tips to restrict the rights it fights to uphold.
“There's a requirement now for ACLU attorneys that earlier than they take a case defending somebody’s free speech, they must guarantee that the speech doesn’t offend or threaten different civil liberties values,” he informed Invoice Maher on Friday.
After pausing to make a confused expression, he continued, “In different phrases, earlier than they’re gonna defend your free speech, they need to see what you say.”
“That’s the ACLU? No, that’s the federal government!” he insisted.
“The ACLU has turn out to be … extra of a political partisan, what they name ‘progressive’ group,” he stated.
Whereas he defended the proper for a company to vary, he warned, “However the issue is, there isn’t every other ACLU.”
“And if there isn’t someone who’s ready to defend what you say … Then the federal government will get to determine who can communicate. And that’s probably the most harmful factor of all,” he stated.
Maher famous how Glasser famously defended the proper for a gaggle of neo-Nazis to march in Skokie, Illinois, in 1977, asking his visitor, “I’m guessing the Nazis didn't mirror your values?”
“That’s a very good guess,” Glasser replied to laughter within the viewers.
“Truly, many of the speech we defended didn’t mirror our values. That’s the purpose,” he pressured.
“Everyone’s in favor of free speech … so long as it’s theirs,” Glasser stated, agreeing with Maher when he stated that the precept “doesn’t work if there’s an exception.”
Maher informed Glasser that he was one of many visitors on his “Actual Time” present whom he would most prefer to hug as a result of his work had “affected my life,” saying that free speech was the outspoken host’s “enterprise.”
“I'm very conscious — all the time have been — that I’ve been in a position to actually get pleasure from free speech particularly right here on HBO, and at ABC earlier than they fired me,” he quipped.
He was referring to his earlier present, “Politically Incorrect,” which was axed by ABC in 2002 following a sequence of controversies that even had then-White Home press secretary Ari Fleischer warning Maher to look at himself, saying People “want to look at what they are saying.”
The ACLU declined to remark early Monday.
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