ACLU Will No Longer Defend Gun-Carrying Protest Groups [View all]

[HAB911]

SNIP

On Thursday, the ACLU made a statement specifying that it would not defend groups that wanted to incite violence or march “armed to the teeth,” the Los Angeles Times reported.

“We review each request for help on a case-by-case basis, but take the clear position that the 1st Amendment does not protect people who incite or engage in violence,” the statement, from three California ACLU affiliates, said.

“If white supremacists march into our towns armed to the teeth and with the intent to harm people, they are not engaging in activity protected by the United States Constitution,” the statement continued. “The 1st Amendment should never be used as a shield or sword to justify violence.”

Waldo Jaquith, a former member of the ACLU Virginia board, had already resigned over the group’s decision to defend far-right activists. “I just resigned from the ACLU of Virginia board,” he wrote on Twitter. “What’s legal and what’s right are sometimes different. I won’t be a fig leaf for Nazis.”

http://www.newsweek.com/free-speech-hate-speech-aclu-civil-liberties-donald-trump-652050