EDITORIAL: ACLU’s top priorities should always include free speech

The First Amendment's guarantees of free speech, free press and peaceful assembly are at the core of all other freedoms guaranteed by the Bill of Rights. Without the First Amendment, the rest of our rights are in constant peril.

But you may not know that by looking at the most recent fundraising letters from the American Civil Liberties Union, which include "work plans" that aim to list the most important threats to civil liberties. For the second year in a row, threats to free speech are not listed.

It's not as if they don't exist. College campus speech codes are rampant and daily threaten students' free speech rights. Campaign finance reform proposals tread on free speech rights with regularity. Protest groups think nothing of trying to shout down controversial speakers or politicians at events, in an attempt to stifle ideas they disdain.

Don't those things count as threats to civil liberties? Shouldn't they be high on the ACLU's radar?

To be sure, it's not as if the organization is ignoring the First Amendment. "Free speech" is prominently listed on its website under "issues," with sub-topics for student speech, rights of protesters, press and photographer freedoms and campaign finance reform.

Not only that, but national ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero replied to criticism levied at his organization last year by pointing out how many free speech battles the ACLU helped fight. These include defending the use of the Confederate flag on Texas license plates, or trademarks that may be racially offensive.

But some former ACLU members who are now affiliated with the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education maintain the ACLU is laying down when free speech comes into conflict with socially liberal values. FIRE co-founder (and former Massachusetts ACLU board member) Harvey Silverglate goes so far as to say the ACLU is pursuing a political and social agenda that essentially trumps the apolitical defense of free speech.

And the concern isn't confined to FIRE members, either. Eugene Volokh, author of The Washington Post's Volokh Conspiracy blog and a law professor at UCLA, wrote recently to concur with University of Washington professor Ronald K. Collins, who raised concerns about the ACLU's free speech commitment on the blog ConcurringOpinions.com. Said Volokh:

"But I do think that Prof. Collins (generally a friend of the ACLU, I think) has a good point: Especially in a year when there have been a huge amount of free speech disputes in the news, chiefly at universities, what the ACLU chooses not to stress in its fundraising letter is some indication of its likely priorities and future directions."

Let's hope not. Because without staunch defenders, free speech rights could easily be lost, and many other liberties as well. A fundraising letter is certainly not the final word on the ACLU's priorities, but a list of those priorities should never exclude the never-ending fight to uphold the First Amendment.