ACLU’s Opinion Requested on Bird Flu Pandemic Planning
Posted on November 3, 2005
The ACLU is in the business of grabbing headlines these days… now, in the context of a potential avian flu pandemic and the government’s response to it. From The Boston Globe there’s this report, excerpted:
PROVIDENCE, R.I. –The Rhode Island chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union says residents could be quarantined unfairly in the event of a flu epidemic.
Director Steven Brown said state law provides residents with virtually no protection against a quarantine in the case of a health-related emergency. He wrote a letter Wednesday to Health Department director David Gifford, expressing concern that people’s civil rights could be violated.
[…]
The General Assembly updated the state’s emergency health power laws in 2003. The ACLU tried unsuccessfully then to curtain the government’s “sweeping powers,” Brown said.
“The problem is when an emergency arises, it’s the natural inclination of government to go as far as it can without necessarily considering the niceties of protecting individual rights,” he said. “We’ve seen that time and again in our history.”
Jeff Neal, a spokesman for Gov. Don Carcieri, said the governor understands Brown’s concerns.
“The governor believes that state officials have an obligation to always keep in mind how their actions will impact the freedoms enjoyed by our citizens,” Neal said. “So in that light, the governor will ask his staff to speak with Mr. Brown to discuss his concerns and determine if any mutually agreeable solutions can be developed.”
It’s all good and fine to be concerned about civil liberties – especially in the context of emergency situations, which could be used as a pretext by those with evil on their minds to unnecessarily strip us of our freedoms. However, it is during emergency management in particular that sometimes, you just have to trust that legislators have written laws that, if judged constitutional by State and Federal Supreme Courts and enforced fairly, will contribute to the general welfare. We saw this with the Patriot Act, where not merely national security but our nation’s very existence is at stake in the face of the global war on terrorism. As regards natural disasters and possible deadly epidemics, similar considerations should apply.
Given this, I feel what’s most disturbing about the above news item is the fact that Gov. Carcieri (a Republican) would allow his staff “to speak with [RI ACLU Director] Brown to discuss his concerns and determine if any mutually agreeable solutions can be developed.” Mutually agreeable solutions? This sounds far too much like a partnership, a set-up for capitulation to the ACLU, and a chance for the ACLU to score more headlines.
Why does the ACLU, which was founded by an avowed Communist and which stands firmly for such wonderful civil liberties as pedophilia, child pornography, and terrorist rights, somehow deserve even a spare minute of the Governor’s valuable time, let alone his staff’s? To extend this further: would the Governor also be willing to sit a spell and listen to the ACLU’s views on the fundamental unfairness of Megan’s Laws to convicted sex offenders? It is one thing to have an ear open to one’s constituency, but quite another to offer an olive branch to one constituent organization who would rather strip the average American of their precious liberties by raising up as defensible the very least deserving in our society.
As Gribbit notes in his valuable Blogburst post today:
It seems to me that these idiots can be pursuing cases where real civil liberties are being violated. Wait, that is over with isn’t it. The government of the United States no longer discriminates against anyone regardless of race, creed, national origin, sex, sexual preference, or handicap. So they haven’t any real horse in a race. So they remain relevant by prosecuting legal actions against local governments. And in this way, they put forward their founder’s vision for America. “Communism is the goal.” – Roger Baldwin 1935.
Originally posted at TMH’s Bacon Bits as part of the STOP THE ACLU Blogburst
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3 Responses to “ACLU’s Opinion Requested on Bird Flu Pandemic Planning”
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“state law provides residents with virtually no protection against a quarantine in the case of a health-related emergency.”
Classic ACLU! You just gotta (that one is for you, ‘Ironically’) love it!
I like the part about protection from quarantine. The quarantine is the protection! But then again if they can stop a quarantine, that means many more would die, and they could then blame the government for failing to protect us.
ACLU- opinions all the time, intelligence none of the time.