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'Why Can't ACLU Get Back To Protecting Nazis?' Whine Twitter Trolls

ACLU stands against state actors infringing civil liberties... which shocks people who think no one should have civil liberties but them.

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Three teachers in Virginia are suing for the right to violate a school district nondiscrimination policy that requires teachers to accept the pronouns provided by students. Despite being a neutral policy and well within the traditional strictures of what public schools can demand of teachers, this Troika of Transphobes have gone to court claiming that it violates their free speech interest in, um, bullying children while on the taxpayers’ dime? I guess?

They’ve also made a free exercise claim that using someone else’s pronouns goes against their religion, which is both entirely laughable based on well-established precedent and doubtless an upcoming 5-4 opinion from the 2022 Term.

In any event, the ACLU of Virginia filed an amicus brief in the matter, available here, because there are more “civil liberties” in the country than “free speech” and preventing a state actor from discriminating against children in compulsory public education is about as core of a “civil liberty” as one can get. Not to mention the fact that the ACLU has an institutional interest in pushing back on specious free speech claims in the interest of protecting the overarching principle.

But this is making a certain corner of the internet very angry:

Wow. We’re a Joe Rogan away from the white guy grievance trifecta!

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This claim, that the ACLU is violating their core mission by opposing the teachers in this case, is pure nonsense. In fact, the ACLU has gotten into tussles against specious free speech claims before, like when the ACLU entered the Kim Davis wedding license debacle in defense of the liberty interest at the heart of marriage equality despite Davis trying to invoke — as a state actor — the same bad arguments the teachers raise here.

And that’s the whole key here: these are state actors. These teachers are free to be bigoted jackholes all they want in their spare time, but the government is not allowed to force kids into a room to face discriminatory attacks. It’s no less a state action just because it’s “individuals” seeking to use their state-granted positions of authority to speak.

Greenwald extended his argument against the ACLU defending the civil liberties of trans kids claiming that the ACLU is doing so at the expense of the “real” civil liberties crises of our time, like efforts to force tech companies to censor speech or putting MAGA insurrectionists on the no fly list — issues about which Greenwald claims the ACLU “says nothing.” Putting aside the broken logic that keeping children free from discrimination in government-run schools is a secondary crisis, the ACLU is deeply embroiled in defending Section 230 and have been fighting the no fly list for years. Filing an amicus brief on school discrimination only trades off with these issues in Glenn’s head.

But all this Twitter whining is right about one thing: the ACLU is going to keep appearing in these cases pushing back against litigants invoking the Amendment that made the organization famous. That’s not a sign that the ACLU has turned over a new leaf, it’s a testament to the cynical actors trying to twist free speech and free exercise into an excuse to rubberstamp state-sponsored discrimination.

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HeadshotJoe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.

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