I served on the board of directors for the ACLU of Florida.
When I was first asked, I declined due to concerns about recent discord. However, I was encouraged to run for office and right the ship. Now, two months later, I’m happy with my decision, especially after spending quality time with staff at Saturday’s get-together in Miami.
Alex Workman
Rosemary Goudreau O’Hara is the former opinion page editor of the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
The ACLU is certainly a controversial organization, but I used to be the op-ed editor for two of Florida’s largest newspapers, so I know a thing or two about controversy. I joined because the ACLU’s core values ​​– fighting government abuses and protecting civil liberties like speech, religion, assembly, privacy, due process, voting and equal protection — are also core to me.
Whatever your political stance, you’ve probably had your fill of the ACLU. When it comes to protecting people’s rights, the organization is a level-playing fighter, even if, as one former board member put it, that means “defending the enemy.”
For example, I’m no fan of the NRA, but I’m proud that the ACLU represented the National Rifle Association in a case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court last week. The case involved New York regulators trying to force banks to blacklist the association. By successfully defending the NRA, the ACLU strengthened everyone’s First Amendment protections against vengeful government leaders.
The ACLU also represented another group I detest: white supremacists, after authorities in Charlottesville, Virginia, revoked their rally permit four years ago. The First Amendment guarantees the right to political speech, including protest, and to speak in public.
Perhaps most famously, 47 years ago the ACLU defended the free speech rights of neo-Nazis in Skokie, Illinois, a town that was home to hundreds of Holocaust survivors: If the government can suppress speech it finds offensive, then it is a dangerous path for the government to block speech it doesn’t like.
Last Thursday, the ACLU of Florida filed suit in court to challenge the state’s book-banning law. Think about it: If you want to ban a book and the school district refuses, you can sue Tallahassee. But if you don’t want to ban a book and they end up banning it, you can’t sue them.
Talk about perspective discrimination.
Our lawyers are also fighting Florida’s “Stop Woke” law, which restricts how college professors can discuss systemic racism and sexism out of concern that students might feel uncomfortable. History is full of uncomfortable truths; the dangers of government censorship are one of them.
We are also fighting a new anti-immigrant law that states only citizens, not legal residents, can register to vote, which excludes many Spanish-speaking residents from participating in voter registration drives and is not equal protection under the law.
And we’re fighting a new law that defines street protests as riots and allows participants to be charged with felonies. I remember when civil rights marchers were beaten with batons and tear gassed as they crossed the Edmund Pettis Bridge in Selma, Alabama. If that happened in Florida today, people marching for freedom would be convicted.
Before Donald Trump became president, we defended his First Amendment right to fly an oversized flag on an oversized flagpole at Mar-a-Lago.
Last year, the ACLU of Florida faced internal turmoil and restructuring. The national organization dissolved the state committee. I can’t say much more because we’re in litigation. But from my vantage point, the reboot has revitalized the organization. At our rally in Miami, I saw an energized staff committed to a noble mission.
We also hired a dynamic new executive director, Bacardi Jackson, who is familiar to many South Florida residents. She is an experienced litigator who graduated from Stanford University and Yale Law School and spent the last four years at the Southern Poverty Law Center. She is the right leader at the right time.
Jackson succeeds Howard Simon, the legendary executive director for more than two decades, who retired in 2018 and returned as interim director last August. Among Simon’s many accomplishments, he played a major role in ending Florida’s ban on same-sex marriage and same-sex adoption.
Our new 14-member Board of Directors includes physicians, lawyers, professors and administrators with diverse perspectives who are ready to support the Executive Director in protecting your rights, no matter what your identity may be.
I tell you this because this is a depressing time for our country. Both parties in Congress believe our democracy is under threat, yet we have very few lobbyists working in government on our behalf. But I want you to know that ACLU staff are working to advance your rights and stop bad things from happening.
The ACLU is a nonpartisan public policy membership organization supported by grants and donations. I hope you will join me in supporting the ACLU of Florida. This is a legitimate cause.
Rosemary O’Hara is a former editorial editor of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and, before that, editorial editor of the Tampa Tribune. She lives in Dunedin.
