ACLU offers to represent politician who wants an ACLUSUX vanity license plate
After Colorado State Senator Greg Brophy announced that he wanted a vanity license plate that read ACLUSUX, the ACLU of Colorado Executive Director Cathryn Hazouri sent him a letter:
If you apply for that license and are refused, please contact the ACLU because we stand ready to represent you if you want to pursue your right to have that license plate. . . After all, censorship is censorship and the ACLU doesn’t draw any distinction between speech with which we agree and speech we may not like. That would be content discrimination and would violate one of our major principles of protecting free speech."ACLU defends ACLUSUX proposed license plate (Via The Agitator)
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I'm loathe to use this phrase for so many reasons, but... I believe this legitimately qualifies as an 'epic win'.
As always the Onion had it first:
http://www.theonion.com/content/news/aclu_defends_nazis_right_to_burn
(Well, not quite, but still.)
What are the chances that State Sen. Brophy is intelligent enough to recognize the irony?
http://www.gregbrophy.net/images/Greg%2005%20House%20lowres.JPG
The First Amendment: epic wins since 1791.
ACLU: out-classing its opponents for decades.
I hope this doesn't create a rip in the space-time fabric like most paradoxes!
That's awesome.
Thanks for the photo link, Someguy.
State Senator Brophy is an inspiration to developmentally disabled people everywhere. If
that man can win an election then anything is possible.
I hope Senator Brophy will do the honorable thing, and offer to help the ACLU get a BROPHYSUX vanity license plate.
I'm endlessly amused by Repuglicans who are too frightened or ashamed to list their party affiliation on their websites.
This year's ACLU membership paid for itself right here.
@#8
It seems that Mr. Brophy is another run of the mill evangelical who uses Jesus to excuse his tendencies toward racism and homophobia. So you're correct. He is indeed a republican.
I never understood why people so vehemenly HATE the ACLU. They aren't defending Nazis, commies and homos; they're defending the U.S. Constitution and our civil rights.
@troofseeker #11: First, because they are perceived as defending Nazis, Commies, and homos, albeit mostly by people who are either not paying attention or who are deliberately trying to deceive those who are not paying attention.
Second, because, as the last 8 years (and, to be frank, a significant amount of this year) have shown us, this country is not completely comfortable with its bill of rights.
#11: From up here in Canada, it honestly looks some times like your government for the past 9-10 years thinks that people who want their civil rights are Nazi Communists from the planet Ygtheron.
A slight correction, though, I believe that the ACLU regularly defends "homos" and has probably defended the occasional member of the Communist Party in America.
Not so sure about any Nazis though.
The ACLU has a long and proud history of standing on principle instead of politics, even (or maybe especially) when it means taking the side of their own harshest critics. Just ask Rush Limbaugh!
Yes, ACLU = epic win.
They are on a long list of worthy organizations I would donate to if it wouldn't exhaust my paycheck prematurely. So I just give them lip service and verbal attaboys.
You can see some of the other plates banned by Colorado censors here:
www.coloradoaclu.org/vanityplate
TroofSeeker "I never understood why people so vehemenly HATE the ACLU."
For a disturbing number of people (I'm looking at you, Christian Right), "liberty" is "the liberty to do as God, via my pastor, commands" and "freedom" is "freedom to be just like the idealized version of me that only exists in my head".
As such the ACLU, while fighting for civil rights, is actually fighting against the freedom of Good, Honest Americans™ to push their ideals on everyone else and their liberty to cast the first stone.
When I punch you in the nose, that's "liberty". When you punch back, that's "oppression". This shows that lots of people have no idea what those words mean.
Okay, everybody do a hard refresh.
There, the train's back on its track.
Antinous: It's just not the same. You're not making choo-choo sounds.
Thank you for posting this. I needed the double shot of humanity this story offers.
To Jerril @ #13: The ACLU enabled a group of Nazis to march in Skokie, Illinois, a virtually 100% (at the time) Jewish suburb of Chicago.
They take our Constitution/Bill of Rights very, very seriously.
Witness Conservapedia's article on the ACLU.
*Pro-illegal immigrants
*Against God
*Against ID
*Against Boy Scouts
*Pro-porn
*Pro-"so-called" gay marriage
*Pro-abortion
*Pro-polygamy
*Pro-free speech, especially speech about porn, but...
*Anti-free speech, when the free speech involves inciting violence against an unpopular minority (the T-shirt/Leviticus passage case)
*Pro-free exercise clause (how did this get in there?)
*Pro-privacy (OMG, they helped Rush Limbaugh!)
*Pro-terrorism
...
Worst of all (and mentioned repeatedly in the article) the ACLU gets paid their fees by the loser when they win, as in Dover! Outrageous, I know.
Luckily, we have groups like Liberty Counsel (who, oddly, have no Conservapedia page) who stand up to the ACLU, say "No, those people don't deserve rights!"...and lose. Personally, I blame the liberal activist judges, even when they're conservative Bush appointees (again, as in Dover).
Voltaire did it.
My conservative father loved the ACLU when I was young precisely because it defended the freedom of everyone (actually, by definition, that is a very conservative trait) but when he started hearing the conservative gasbags on the air rail against the ACLU as a liberal group he changed his mind. I reminded him of this but he was not fazed, after all, it's not about what someone does, it is how they are perceived. Huh?
Yay!
A shame it's in my state, but, hey. I always what pinko list I got put on when I signed up for their newsletter.
I don't have much money right now, but I will pull that ACLU donation request out of the recycle bin because of this.
I'm fine with folks expressing their opinions, but I'm not so hot on vulgarity.
"Sucks" is a term that, like "damn", has become mild through overuse. However, remember what it is you are supposed to be "sucking on".
Say cheese.
This guy is actually my district's senator. In fact, I once got into a very long argument with him in high school over seat belt laws. We're not the best of friends these days. Anyway, the district he represents is essentially the Colorado Bible belt. Very conservative, love their guns and sheep kinda people. And that is why he was elected and re-elected and re-elected.
What is "offensive to good taste or decency" about GOD-S (which I would interpret as Goddess), YEAHBUT, or YUCK? Whoever refused to issue these license plates has some serious mental problems!