My e-mail to John Gibson
Posted on November 25, 2005
John Gibson is the host of the show “My Word” on Fox News Channel, and the author of the book “The War on Christmas”. He seems like one of the good guys, and I have no doubt that he is. On Thanksgiving Day I was tuned in to the Tony Snow radio show and heard a caller ask Gibson if the ACLU benefited from taxpayers’ money. Gibson answered “no”, and I understood where he was coming from, as the ACLU is a private organization, but felt that the radio exchange left some important points out. So I e-mailed him, and here is the text (I’ll let y’all know if I get a response):
Dear Mr. Gibson:
Thank you for writing your recent book (I admit I’ve not yet read it, but intend to). I had the pleasure of hearing a bit of the Tony Show radio show for which you hosted on Thanksgiving Day. I heard something that interested me, but not knowing if the holiday show was live or taped, I did not attempt to fill in.
What I heard that interested me was that a caller had asked you whether the ACLU received any taxpayer funding. You responded that they did not. Your answer is correct in a sense, but incorrect in another sense, and I decided, respectfully, to write to you to discuss the manner in which your answer is not accurate.
You are right to conclude that the ACLU (and groups like them, e.g. PFAW and Citizens United for Separation of Church and State) do not receive direct federal or state funding for their operations. In practice, however, the story is quite different. Because of a well-intentioned federal statute (42 USC section 1988, related to the provisions of the civil rights statute at 42 USC section 1983), plaintiffs in civil rights cases are routinely awarded attorneys’ fees by judges in civil rights cases.
That’s a good and noble thing, except that in the case of Establishment Clause lawsuits, which are the subject of your book, the reality on the ground, if you will, is that the ACLU is able to simply threaten city after city and county after county with lawsuits about the appearance of what they call “religious iconography” in public places, and those cities know that the cost of defending a lawsuit against the ACLU demanding something like removing a small cross from the county seal will be enormous, even if the city/county’s legal services are provided for free.
Thus, in real-world practice, the ACLU and other groups get significant revenue in the form of attorneys’ fees, and again, in practice, the relevant cases are brought against cities and counties and school boards. Thus, it is inescapable that it is taxpayers’ dollars that are contributing to the ACLU’s coffers and efforts when they are awarded attorneys’ fees (which is often and adds up to a lot of money to you and me). There is no converse situation; neither the ACLU nor taxpayers are ever required to enrich and expand the budgets of those who seek to defend the culture and the status quo in court.
I thank you for your efforts to inform Americans with your book “The War on Christmas”, and hope you do not mind my comments about what you may have missed when responding to that radio caller.
I am an attorney, a West Point graduate, the editor of www.CourtZero.org, and a contributor to www.stoptheaclu.com. I’d love to have a response from you and to know where you stand on efforts to amend 42 USC section 1988.
Thank you,
Craig McCarthy
» Filed Under ACLU
Trackback URL
Comments
2 Responses to “My e-mail to John Gibson”
-
Affiliations
The Giants
-
Advertise
Donate
Our Store
Click the design to visit our store and help Stop the ACLU!
Stop the ACLU blogburst
-
More blogs about the ACLU
Syndicate Me
Hope you get a response, but I highly doubt it.
ArrMatey:
Re.: Your e-mail to John Gibson
I’m glad to see that you made the points above to John. However, I think you failed to point out the most obvious taxpayer support to the ACLU, et al, and that’s the tax exempt status of the org. itself. There are no taxes collected for transaction into/from the ACLU coffers and that missed revenue must be made up from the rest of us.