Score 1 for national ACLU

“Any response … must ensure that the rights to peacefully assemble and to express political views are respected.”

“Under the First Amendment, there must be healthy communication between police officers and the people they serve. We should not want, or expect, officers to be Buckingham Palace guards.”

“It is probably no accident that freedom of speech is the first freedom mentioned in the First Amendment.”

“The Constitution’s framers believed that freedom of inquiry and liberty of expression were the hallmarks of a democratic society.”

“During the ‘Red Scare’ of the early 1920s, thousands were deported for their political views. During the McCarthy period, the infamous blacklist ruined lives and careers. Today, the creators, producers and distributors of popular culture are being blamed for the nation’s deep social problems. Calls for censorship threaten to erode free speech. … The First Amendment exists precisely to protect the most offensive and controversial speech from government suppression. The best way to counter obnoxious speech is with more speech. Persuasion, not coercion, is the solution.”

These quotes and passages come directly from the national website of the American Civil Liberties Union. After reading them, you could certainly conclude that ACLU leaders staunchly support our First Amendment right to speak freely and express our beliefs and ideals, no matter how controversial or how much those views may anger someone else.

But it’s obvious that same viewpoint, so eloquently defended by the national leadership, sure as hell isn’t shared by a bunch of whiny, intolerant leftists who manage the ACLU chapter in the state of Hawaii.

On Monday, Pam Lichty, president of that ACLU chapter, presided over a board vote that decided “against a proposal to invite [U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence] Thomas to debate national ACLU President Nadine Strossen about affirmative action at the Davis-Levin First Amendment conference,” Fox News reported.

“The purpose of the conference, according to founder Robert Rees, ‘is to offer pitched debates on constitutional issues.’ The idea for Thomas to participate was first discussed by ACLU members after Justice Antonin Scalia had participated in an earlier conference,” said Fox.

As far as I know, the right to freedom of speech and expression is still a “constitutional issue,” and Hawaii is still one of 50 states subject to the overreaching rights and privileges guaranteed all Americans by the Constitution.

“Lichty said Thomas, who is African-American and is known as one of the more conservative members of the high court,” Fox News continued, “was deemed by the board an ‘inappropriate’ guest for the debate after ‘adamant opposition by the only African-Americans on the board.'”

In other words, the board’s three leftist blacks – Faye Kennedy, Eric Ferrer and Daphne Barbee-Wooten – “expressed grave concerns” over Thomas’ invitation because he simply disagrees with their liberal points of view.

What is amazing is that these three bigoted individuals – who likened Thomas to “Hitler” and “the anti-Christ,” and also called him an “Uncle Tom” – managed to convince nine others on the 15-member board to side with them. The final vote was 12-3 against inviting Thomas.

Amazing, too, that these three partisan and prejudiced PC addicts would scream bloody murder if Thomas, as a high court justice, ever treated them as they have treated him.

Thomas, however, would never do that, because unlike the three narrow-minded and racist idiots on the Hawaii ACLU board, he is consistent with his constitutional points of view.

The First Amendment’s guarantees are the same for everyone today, yesterday, tomorrow, next week, and for all time, in Thomas’ view. His rulings during his tenure reflect that.

Not so, obviously, with this trio of liberal hypocrites, who are obviously terrified to debate constitutional issues with one of the nation’s most gifted and talented constitutional scholars.

But I have to give some credit to the consistency of the national ACLU leadership. At least they understand that the First Amendment’s guarantees should be afforded everyone, regardless of how much you may disagree with their point of view.

The “comments and subsequent refusal to extend an invitation” to Thomas by the Hawaii chapter “have drawn the ire of the ACLU’s national headquarters,” Fox News said. “A spokesman for the organization on Monday said the actions of the Hawaii board were ‘deplorable’ and that the national ACLU in no way defends such ‘politically correct posturing.'”

“And Robert Rees, who funds the Davis-Levin First Amendment conference and first wrote about the episode in Honolulu Weekly, calls the entire episode ‘an absurd case of political correctness,'” Fox reported.

Indeed.

On many, many issues the ACLU and I have disagreed. But in the tradition of Thomas, I must be consistent and fair-minded as well, by pointing out that the national ACLU leadership is doing the right thing by neither sanctioning or defending the misguided and hubristic behavior of the Hawaii chapter.

We’ll see if the local leadership has the guts, integrity and insight to apologize to Thomas, re-extend his invitation to speak, and rid itself of three individuals who obviously don’t know that constitutional rights travel both ways on legal street.