A.C.L.U. Warned on Plan to Limit Members' Speech
By STEPHANIE STROM
A lawyer in the New York state attorney general's office informally warned the American Civil Liberties Union that his office had concerns about proposed standards that would limit the group's board members from speaking publicly about policies and internal operations, according to three board members.
The executive committee of the A.C.L.U. board was told about the warning on Friday, the day before the board met in New York for its quarterly meeting. Board members, who discussed the proposals on Saturday but took no action, had no knowledge of the warning and the meeting ended on Sunday without the executive committee revealing it.
"What if we had voted to approve the proposals?" said Wendy Kaminer, a board member who has criticized the proposals and other actions taken by the board and the A.C.L.U. leadership over the last couple of years. "We had a need and a right to know that if we passed them, we might get into trouble with the attorney general's office."
Nadine Strossen, the board president, confirmed in an e-mail message that "someone" in the attorney general's office had called in his personal capacity to tell the A.C.L.U. of concern about the issue and that the executive committee had discussed it.
"It determined that these details were not germane to the board's general discussion of the issues raised" in the report on the rights and responsibilities of board members that contained the controversial proposals, she wrote.
Ms. Kaminer, who is leaving the board, and two other board members who were granted anonymity because they were afraid to speak publicly given the pending proposals, said an executive committee member had told them that Gerald Rosenberg, the assistant attorney general in charge of the New York State charities bureau, recently had spoken with Antonia Grumbach, a lawyer for the A.C.L.U., and told her the proposals might raise issues for his office if they were adopted.
In a telephone interview from France, Mr. Rosenberg declined to say whether he had spoken with Ms. Grumbach. "There is no pending investigation of the A.C.L.U. by my office at this time," he said.
Speaking in general terms, Mr. Rosenberg said he would have concerns if any nonprofit organization limited its board members' ability to speak publicly about policies. "If a public charity did adopt as a bylaw or a binding resolution that barred its directors from discussing public policy outside the boardroom, it might well be of concern to us," he said.
The proposals are in a report on the rights and responsibilities of board members that includes a description of the bylaws pertinent to directors and proposals that address conflicts of interest. But the board discussion on Saturday was primarily on the provisions related to board members' ability to speak publicly about the A.C.L.U.
