Violence in Charlottesville leads to soul-searching at ACLU
NEW YORK — Faced with an angry backlash for defending white supremacists’ right to march in Charlottesville, the American Civil Liberties Union is confronting a feeling among some of its members that was once considered heresy: Maybe some speech isn’t worth defending.
Cracks in the ACLU’s strict defense of the First Amendment no matter how offensive the speech opened from the moment a counterprotester was killed during the rally in Virginia. Some critics said the ACLU has blood on its hands for persuading a judge to let the Aug. 12 march to protest the removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee go forward. An ACLU leader in Virginia resigned, tweeting, “What’s legal and what’s right are sometimes different.