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A Firing Line Debate: Resolved: That the Aclu Is Full of Baloney (1998-05-04)
About this film
Mr. Buckley begins by citing an article that said, "The ACLU is most generally identified with free speech, religion, and criminal law. That's true. Free speech defined as the right of Deep Throat--and, who knows?, maybe even snuff films--to the airwaves; freedom of religion defined as forbidding the Ten Commandments to be viewed in a courthouse or crosses or menorahs to be exhibited on public property; and criminal law defined as the right of criminals to escape imprisonment because the arresting officer didn't brush his teeth that morning." Ms. Strossen starts out taking the high road: "The ACLU's mission is unique and critically important: to defend all fundamental freedoms for all people in this country. We pursue this broad mission because we have learned through experience that all rights are indivisible, that if the government is ever ceded the power to violate one right of one person or group, then no right is safe for any person or group." And that is why the ACLU takes up some of the cases that Messrs. Buckley and Graglia zestfully cite--in favor of the 14-year-old girl who wished to decorate her school clothes with condom packages, against the Detroit school board's inst…
Directors & creators
Southern Educational Communications Association
Subjects
public broadcasting, AAPB, William F. Buckley Jr., Nadine Strossen, Lino Graglia, American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU, Freedom of speech, Civil liberties, Freedom of religion, Criminal justice reform, School prayer, Public school safety, School vouchers, AIDS policy, Boy Scouts of America, First Amendment
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