AS PART OF THE STEALTH REVISIONISM seeping through American Liberalism these days, we note that American Civil Liberties Union page devoted to "Free Speech" seems to have included the entire First Amendment in their opening statement. It now reads:
It is no accident that freedom of speech is protected in the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances." The Constitution's framers believed that freedom of inquiry and liberty of expression were the hallmarks of a democratic society.This is different from the previous version of this which we noted back on January 12 in Why Someone Doesn't Sue the ACLU on General Principles is Beyond Me as:
You can find this statement at the top of the ACLU's web page:What is responsible for this transmogrification from "...freedom of speech is the first freedom" to "freedom of speech is protected"? Is it possible that our small complaint, linked here and there in the blogosphere, caused a crisis of conscience at the ACLU? Highly unlikely. Perhaps somebody deep within the organization pointed out that the first statement was, well, not true, and lots of people had memorized the First Amendment. More likely. Or perhaps, the ACLU is seeing, like Colorado University with its Ward Churchill scandal, the fountains of funding beginning to dry up.We prefer to think it is the latter, and that the ACLU is finding a need to clean up its act here and there. We know that the ACLU doesn't worship God, but we can be equally sure it worships money.It is probably no accident that freedom of speech is the first freedom mentioned in the First Amendment: "Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." The Constitution's framers believed that freedom of inquiry and liberty of expression were the hallmarks of a democratic society. [Emphasis added]
[Tip of the Hat to AD reader Paul P who brought this our attention.]
Posted by Vanderleun at March 15, 2005 03:36 PM | TrackBack