Regardless their position on a given issue, they help keep the legal process alive.
OMG, so threatening cities and people with LAWSUITS that can RUIN them is keeping the "legal process alive"?
The ACLU
Protector of our liberties, or
destroyer of our heritage?
by Dennis Pollock
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When newly appointed convenience store manager Mike Ruestik was visited by a sales representative from the store's news and periodicals distributor, he had no idea what that visit would cost him. The sales rep told Mike about a variety of new products that the company was offering to its customers including a number of pornographic magazines. Mike wasn't interested. His desire for a decent, family oriented store was incompatible with selling pornography, and so he placed his regular order of magazines and passed over the smut.
Two days later he was astonished to receive a call from a local lawyer. He was informed that his "arbitrary refusal" to order certain magazines was, in effect, "censorship" a "clear violation" of the free speech rights guaranteed by the First Amendment of the Constitution. He was then threatened with an ultimatum: either stock the pornography or else face a lawsuit. He asked the attorney why he couldn't stock whatever he wanted to in his store. He also inquired about what had happened to the concept of free enterprise.
The lawyer wasn't interested in hearing Mike's perspective on the issue, and their conversation ended with Mike declaring, "I'll see you in court." It never came to that. The corporate office for the store decided it would be smarter to avoid a lawsuit, and Mike was fired. Neat and simple.
the rest at..
The Real Truth About the ACLU --