The Omaha World-Herald reports:
In a stark turnabout from its free-speech advocacy, the ACLU urged a judge Monday to prevent the Omaha World-Herald from publishing the name of the Plattsmouth, Neb., man who sued the city over a Ten Commandments monument.
Amy Miller, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union Nebraska, asked the U.S. District Court for an order prohibiting The World-Herald from disclosing the man’s identity, arguing that his safety and well-being would be endangered.
The newspaper vowed to fight the ACLU’s request, saying it will continue to report on the court case because it is part of a major public policy issue. . . .
When the ACLU filed a lawsuit on the man’s behalf three years ago, attorneys argued that the man should be able to proceed under the name John Doe. The ACLU said the pseudonym was necessary because of threats the man received over his protest of the monument in a city park.
Federal magistrate David L. Piester allowed the man to proceed anonymously, but that order applied only to the attorneys and the parties involved in the case. . . .
Now the ACLU wants the court to issue an order of confidentiality on the plaintiff’s identity to apply beyond the courtroom. . . .
I highly doubt that the ACLU will win. (Note, incidentally, that this is yet another example of a Crime-Facilitating Speech controversy, since the ACLU is arguing that the publication of the plaintiff’s name would facilitate crimes against him, even though the newspapers might not intend that result.) And I think it’s also likely to lose some of its credibility in future cases where it tries to defend potentially harmful speech. True, they might reasonably argue that there’s a difference between the speech they’re trying to restrict here and the speech they try to protect elsewhere. But many in the public might not buy those arguments, and might see the ACLU as being unprincipled, and as simply trying to restrict speech that hurt its favored causes while protecting speech that helps its favored causes. And the ACLU’s reputation for principled defense of free speech, and the grudging admiration that this has at times earned the ACLU even from some of its opponents, is one of its most valuable assets.
As I understand it, ACLU chapters have a lot of autonomy, and this decision by the Nebraska ACLU is likely not endorsed — and might even be much disapproved of, for all I know — by headquarters or by other chapters. People therefore ought not ascribe the decision to the ACLU generally; though in practice, I suspect that people will, given that most aren’t aware of how the ACLU hierarchy operates. That’s the nature of trademarks: One user of the mark can taint it in a way that affects all the other users as well, rightly or wrongly.
I hope to get a copy of the ACLU’s motion in this case soon, and perhaps this might shed more light on the subject; if so, I’ll blog more about it.
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