ACLU Fights Dems’ Dishonest War on Due Process

By Nat Hentoff, Nick Hentoff Nat Hentoff, Nick Hentoff

What a difference two months makes. In April, we offered harsh criticism of the national ACLU’s opposition to important due process criminal justice reforms pending in Congress. At the time, we described the ACLU as “a diminished shadow of its former self” and argued that “(t)he ACLU is now led by cafeteria civil libertarians who choose the liberties they deem worthy of protection based on a narrow ideological agenda.”

This week, the ACLU redeemed itself with a courageous stand against legislation that would have expanded the Obama administration’s reliance on secret watch lists to deny Americans their constitutional rights.

In the wake of the Orlando massacre, Senator Dianne Feinstein introduced legislation in the Senate that would authorize the attorney general to block a gun sale for anyone suspected of terrorism. Feinstein’s bill would also have authorized the attorney general to add anyone to a watch list who had been investigated for terrorism within the past five years, even if that person had been completely exonerated of any involvement in terrorism.

The ACLU sent a letter to senators urging them to vote no because of “the use of vague and overbroad criteria and the lack of adequate due process.” …Read the Rest

Source:: Cato Institute