I was a member of the ACLU for years.  I quit because I disagreed with them on several important issues, including their positions concerning for the American Nazis, the Man-Boy Love Association, and spam.

I've rethought my position however.  In part, this was due to an excellent book, "Monkey Girl," by Edward Humes.  It's the story of the attempt to put religious beliefs into public schools through the device of intelligent design.  The book focuses on the case in Dover, Pa, and the critical role played by ACLU in supporting the parents who opposed the school board.

However, even more important is the Obama administration.  Several recent actions have convinced me we were misled during the campaign about Obama's commitment to civil liberties and the rule of law.

§              Mohamed et al. v. Jeppesen  This case seeks to challenge the practice of extraordinary rendition, Bush's term for kidnapping and torture.  The Bush administration blocked the litigation by invoking "state secrets."  This is the notion that even talking about the case in court would divulge secrets.  Never mind that everyone knows the basics of what happened; also never mind that individual pieces of evidence could be blocked at a trial if they would divulge secrets.  Under the Bush doctrine, nothing about the case can ever be discussed or come to trial.  The Eric Holder Justice Department was given a chance to reverse this policy and it refused.  The new administration takes the same view as Bush, and will not let any aspect of the case come to trial.

§              Al-Marri v. Spagone  In this case, a man in this country legally was arrested and held for nearly six years without trial or even an indictment, using the enemy combatant theory.  When the Supreme Court at last agreed to hear the case, Obama's Justice Department arranged for an indictment, and has now asked the SC to dismiss the suit, saying that the indictment has rendered the six years of imprisonment moot.  If the SC falls for this, there will no remedy for this illegal detention, and no court decision protecting anyone from a similar fate in the future.

§              Signing statements.  Bush issued hundreds of these statements when he signed legislation.  It was a tool for him to proclaim that his expansive view of presidential power trumped acts of congress.  McCain campaigned on a promise to abolish signing statements.  The American Bar Association considers them unconstitutional.  Obama has now directed the government to review all of Bush's statements, possibly with an eye to overturning them.  But, he hasn't explicitly overturned Bush's signing statements, and he hasn't renounced the use of this tool in the future.  On the contrary, he's made clear that he will use them.

Obama has said that Bush abused power, but we should trust that Obama and his people  won't do the same.  But, Obama will not renounce the expanded and probably unconstitutional tools which Bush used to commit these abuses.  So we have nothing to rely on but our faith in Obama.  That is not enough for me.

I joined ACLU for a start.  It is the one organization that we can count on to oppose government abuse of power, regardless of which party is behind it.

In addition, I wrote to my senators and representative urging them to support the State Secrets Protection Act.  This legislation would block using state secrets as a wall to prevent a case from going to court.  The law provides mechanisms which allow the government to challenge the introduction of evidence or testimony that might disclose secrets.  Secrets would still be protected, but so would the right to a fair trial.  I suggest that everyone who cares about these issues support this law, and support the ACLU.