Friday, April 24, 1998 | 10:10 a.m.
When groups such as the Religious Right use every legal means at their disposal to destroy the ACLU, one of their biggest defenders is -- the ACLU.
The American Civil Liberties Union, formed in 1920, supports the right of such groups to avail themselves of all civil liberties guaranteed by the Constitution.
"We may oppose what they stand for, but we defend their right to stand for it," said National ACLU Executive Director Ira Glasser.
Glasser is in Las Vegas for a three-day meeting at the Las Vegas Hilton Hotel.
About 250 ACLU directors, lawyers and paid staff are at the meeting for workshops and conferences and discussions about issues the organization is dealing with now and will have to deal with in the future.
Every state is represented at the meeting.
"We're doing a lot of brainstorming, dealing with a variety of civil liberty issues," said Nevada ACLU Executive Director Gary Peck.
National ACLU Board President Nadine Strossen said issues run the gamut -- from abortion to zoning.
"There are so many," said Strossen, a New York professor of law. "These are very tough times for civil liberties."
She said one of the greatest dangers facing the organization today is the sustained attack on the independence of America's judiciary program.
"As long as it remains independent, the ACLU will be OK," said Strossen.
Too many people are seemingly willing to give up some of their constitutionally protected rights, particularly those governing searches and seizures, because of a fear of crime and terrorism, she said.
"Politicians offer quick-fix solutions, which includes attempts to eliminate civil liberties," Strossen said.
And there is also a growing fear of new technology, specifically the computers.
"The government is cracking down on the Internet," said Strossen, noting that the ACLU has won several recent cases in which the government attempted to place so much control over the Internet that it violated rights of freedom of speech and privacy.
Computer and other technological advancements are forcing the ACLU to examine its role in protecting the enduring values expressed in the Constitution and how it goes about performing that task.
"Many values have radically changed from what they were 20, 30 or 40 years ago," said Glasser. "The organization has to re-invent itself."
Glasser explained that an early goal of the ACLU was to tear down the so-called Jim Crow laws -- those that legalized racism -- and replace them with laws that prohibit discrimination.
That task was accomplished, but changing the laws did not change the social structure that had been created by hundreds of years of racist laws.
Now, said Glasser, the ACLU must think creatively in finding ways to change the institutions that perpetuate the racism created by the old laws.
He compared the situation here with the situation in South Africa, which went from years of Apartheid to a nation governed by blacks.
Though the laws changed, the economic system in that country is still in place and outside Capetown there are miles of tin shacks where impoverished blacks live just as they lived when the laws kept white people in power.
"Getting rid of the legal system of racism does not get rid of racism," said Glasser.
Technology is another area of endeavor for the ACLU.
When the Constitution was written, those who created it thought by protecting people in their homes and businesses they were protecting everyone from intrusion by the government.
But then came the telephone, and the government found a way to intrude into a person's privacy by tapping phone lines.
And then computers came along, and now private information once kept in the home or place of business now is kept in a variety of places -- at credit card centers, at banks, at telephone companies and other places where computers store information.
And an issue now is, do those places where the information is stored have the same constitutional protection of privacy as if it were stored at home.
The government says no, the ACLU says yes.
"E-mail is now like paper mail inside a transparent envelope," said Glasser.
Computers now can let the government know everything about you, from political preference to preference of toothpaste.
"Take the basic value of privacy," said Glasser. "The things you used to do to proect your privacy have changed and so we have to re-evaluate what you do to protect them."
Glasser said although civil liberties are under attack, great progress has been made in many areas such as the rights of women, gays and minorities and he believes those rights will continue to expand into the future.
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