Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
The conservative media is up in arms about a convicted murderer in prison in Boston who wants the state to pay for a sex change operation. Now let me say, first of all, that I agree with them on the substance. No, we shouldn't spend a dime on a sex change operation for this guy and I certainly hope that the courts reject the claim (he is now suing in Federal court to force the state to pay for the operation, but the case is incredibly weak). But having said that, I also find the level of emotional outrage aimed at such incidents to be rather absurd. Yes, it's a dumb lawsuit; people file dumb lawsuits all the time. But this one is titillating because it involves a sex change, and that's one sure way to get the collective panties of the religious right all in a bunch.
StopTheACLU is, naturally, complaining about the case and they had to find some way of linking it to the ACLU. Since the ACLU hasn't endorsed the prisoner's argument and isn't involved in the case, they had to do a little searching. And what did they find? Why, they found one of the ACLU of Massachusetts' annual reports that listed the prisoner's attorney as one of nearly 100 attorneys in the state who had volunteered their time in one of their cases. And by golly, that got them all excited:
...and this conscienceless, brutal murderer's counsel is a volunteer attorney for...drum roll...THE ACLU of MASSACHUSETTS!
Shocking! See pg. 13. I just KNEW my simple inquiry would bear the fruit I sought! The more twisted it gets, the more likely it becomes that the ACLU is involved somehow.
But the ACLU isn't involved. An attorney who has done volunteer work for the ACLU in the past is involved. Almost all of the ACLU's work is done by attorneys who volunteer their time to take cases pro bono. Does that mean the ACLU supports every legal position taken by every attorney in every case they've ever done or will do in the future once that attorney has volunteered for them in a case? Of course not. This is the kind of ridiculous rhetoric engaged in only by blind ideologues straining to find anything they can to discredit an enemy.
Comments
I've noted several times that Jay Stephenson at StopTheACLU is fond of posting bald-faced lies. His unreasoning hatred of the ACLU has driven him to the point that there is no falsehood or distortion that he will not employ.
Posted by: meatbrain
| June 1, 2006 1:54 PM
And don't forget: Sometimes the ACLU and Thomas More Law Center are on the *same sides* of some issues! What does that say about Thomas More?
Posted by: KeithB
| June 1, 2006 4:22 PM
This is just another example of the Outrage Of The Day® strategy that's supposed to keep the base riled up. I hope a large percentage of the base is suffering from Outrage Fatigue Disorder by now.
Posted by: Pieter B
| June 1, 2006 5:35 PM