Perhaps someone will remind the ACLU that the “A” in their acronym is for “American”? Until then, I am afraid that the American Civil Liberties Union will continue to work overtime to undermine the popular will and rights of law-abiding American citizens in order to secure privileges for the law-breakers within our borders, whether they broke our laws crossing our borders or have committed felonies.

Late last week, the ACLU filed suit in Arizona on behalf of five felons who want their voting privileges returned, despite committing crimes that under state law forfeits that privilege. According to the story in the Arizona Daily Star, “this is the first lawsuit in the nation seeking to overturn any state law that automatically disfranchises felons.”

Just the week before, the ACLU posted their letter to Senator Mitch McConnell stating their opposition to an amendment to the immigration reform bill. This amendment would require voters to present a photo ID – a move that would allow voter precincts to determine if the people voting there are eligible to do so. Such a move would allegedly disenfranchise “undocumented” immigrants – who in most cases are “undocumented” because they secretly entered our country through the back door, and therefore were never enfranchised to begin with!

Meanwhile, as my colleague John Armor reported recently, the ACLU has joined a number of left-wing groups that seek to overturn a town ordinance in Farmers Branch, Texas – approved by nearly 70% of the local population when put to vote – that imposes sanctions on landlords who rent their apartments to illegal aliens. The purpose of the law is to protect the “health, safety and general welfare” of its citizens against the disproportionately greater threat to each brought by a population of non-Americans who are in this country, and that town, illegally. The ACLU has brought a similar suit against Hazelton, PA (see John’s excellent paper on the subject, “The Hazelton Rebellion”).

However, the ACLU supports towns that have fashioned themselves as “sanctuary cities” for illegal aliens by implementing a don’t ask, don’t tell policy regarding the immigration status of criminals and other persons stopped by local law enforcement. Here again the ACLU is advocating that laws duly passed by the elected representatives of law-abiding American citizens – this time, federal immigration laws – by either ignored or overturned by judicial fiat.

Whence this favoritism for the non-American and the flagrant law-breaker? Time and again, the ACLU is proving itself to be the most un-American of American institutions.