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From: ray@rochester.UUCP (Ray Frank)
Newsgroups: net.kids,net.legal,net.politics
Subject: Re: corporal punishment in schools (and ACLU)
Message-ID: <11254@rochester.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 29-Aug-85 11:43:21 EDT
Article-I.D.: rocheste.11254
Posted: Thu Aug 29 11:43:21 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 31-Aug-85 09:17:11 EDT
References: <2149T3B@psuvm> 11212@rochester.UUCP <2163T3B@psuvm>
Organization: U. of Rochester, CS Dept.
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Xref: watmath net.kids:1819 net.legal:2221 net.politics:10743

>      
> I mentioned my ACLU membership in the original posting only because
> I wanted to indicate the context of my remarks, and my orientation.
> I'd be happy to get into a discussion of the merits of the American
> Civil Liberties Union, though perhaps that should be done in either
> net.legal or net.politics, and kept out of net.kids.  Followup to
> either group and we can see whether other netters would find such a
> discussion useful.  Just to get things started, I'd note that ACLU
> has been a group that primarily advocates procedural fairness in
> application of the U.S. Constitution, with a special emphasis on the
> Bill of Rights.  What bothers you about that?
>      
> Tom Benson   T3B at PSUVM (Bitnet)
>      
Here in Rochester the ACLU prevented the police dept. from issuing good
driving tickets to motorists deserving them.  It was only a good will drive
by the police dept.,  but the ACLU said it was unconstitutional.

When that 15 yr. old Russian boy wanted to stay in America and not leave the
country with his parents several years ago, the ACLU said he must go back.

These are a few examples of where the ACLU seems to 'pop' out of the wood
work and get involved in other peoples affairs, even when they're not 
invited to get involved.  Right or wrong, I get the impression that the ACLU
wraps the Bill of Rights around a lead pipe and uses it to 'get' peoples 
attention in order to protect them.