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by bitcurious 955 days ago
The ACLU of Virginia did defend the rights of white supremacists to organize in Charlottesville in 2017. I believe the resulting violence triggered some aclu soul searching and I’m not sure where the organization landed on defending the free speech of nazis and the like. Speaking for myself, I hope they keep to their principles.
1 comments
alephnerd 955 days ago
> I hope they keep to their principles.

Not anymore. The Charlottesville incident was the straw that broke the camel's back [0][1][2].

There was a revolt from donors and plenty of lawyers against their stance during Charlottesville.

[0] - https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/06/us/aclu-free-speech.html

[1] - https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/17/opinion/aclu-first-amendm...

[2] - https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/04/opinion/sunday/free-speec...

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johnnyanmac 955 days ago
damn, that's rough. It's a shame because yes, the first amendment does include "the right of the people peaceably to assemble"

But that's the rub, PEACEABLY. Clearly what happened in Charlottesville violated that and is no longer protected under the constitution. But we can't ever truly predict the actions of an individual in a large group.

I'm very torn. I feel like we veer into Minority Report if we start having to predict what assemblies are prone to violation or not.

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