ACLU Plans Lawsuit Over Welfare Drug Test...

...citing Fourth Amendment Violations over search and seizure protections and yet they still haven't, to the best of my knowledge, sued TSA or DHS for the same reason?

Why not? I submit the ACLU is NOT interested in representing the traveling public simply because most travelers are employed, not homeless, middle-class citizens. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think we'll ever see a lawsuit out of TSA violations.

 

Im sorry but i think if your going to take government assistance then they have every right to make up the rules. If your on welfare and doing illegal drugs you deserve to not only loose them there kids and go to jail.

This issue really rubs me the wrong way as I see this abuse first hand day in and day out. Its amazing to me to see people on welfare, food stamps, etc that have very nice things(expensive ,cars, clothes and electronics) that i cant afford yet im working my (expletive deleted) off(60hr weeks are normal) for what I have, yet these lazy bums dont work at all and will bitch if they dont get there entitlements (food stamps, welfare, section 8, medicaid, etc).


As far as I'm concerned the ACLU can go to (expletive deleted) on this issue, and deal with real issues like the scum at DHS and TSA that rape travelers and us the constitution as toilet paper.

 

Well, I don't think we're going to agree on this. Problem is, when the bankers shoveled in $1 trillion into their snouts, I didn't see anybody asking them to pee in a jar.

 

well i would say it needs to be universal for hand outs and the results be posted online, then again Id love to know what some polticos are on based on the far left field decisions they made.

TARP just makes me want to beat my head against the wall on so many levels, hence why i no longer deal with Citi and the like and my money is in a credit union, where I am a owner in the institution.

 

I think the ACLU has totally dropped the ball on this, which is what I told them when they called soliciting renewal of my membership. I told them I'd continue to give to my local chapter, which still does good work, but not national hq, which for years has been far more concerned with p.c. (expletive deleted) than with serious civil liberties violations. (This isn't to throw the baby out with the bathwater -- I acknowledge that national hq still does important work, including this case, I believe, just that they've let their mission slip too far.)

 

I dropped out of ACLU a long time ago, came to conclusion that they were big firm attorneys only interested in flashy cases. I actually went to one of their board meetings, it was hideous. The real grinding work of criminal defense, immigration law, etc. was done by hardworking and low-paid people who got no awards, no recognition, for all their work.

 

As a management employee for a credit union I would encourage everyone to consider a local credit union for your financial needs.

 

For a real eye-opener, read Wendy Kaminer's account of her experience as a board member -- "Worst Instincts" -- short, slim little book, quick read; devastating.

 

Have been a credit union member for over 25 years; wouldn't have it any other way.

 

Ah, you mean like the Bailey Building and Loan? Here's a great speech:

 

I don't know how they got a reputation as radicals, I've never seen anything radical about them at all. Radicals are the IWW, I haven't quite got myself to join the Wobblies, but they are radical no doubt about it. One good thing about this TSA business is that I 'm actually having online discussions with people who probably share very few of my other political ideas, and I don't think I'm alone. That this occurs may in the end be a good thing out of all this depressing overreach of the government.

 

Then you must know Wobbly hero Big Bill Haywood's great line: "A liberal is the guy who leaves the room when a fight starts."

 

I didn't, but I do now! Thanks. BTW, "liberals" are a vanishing breed, the current term is "progressive" but I don't like that very much.

 

Since I consider myself way left of liberal, they can vanish for all I care. (Sorry, is my bitterness showing much? )

 

Yes, actually I call myself a liberal, but maybe that's like fixing up an old car, dreaming of the days when it used to run.

 

About the ACLU and TSA/DHS....

The most likely reason why they haven't sued is because these cases are very hard to win, and if you lose, you potentially create bad case law. They're worried that if they sue and lose, then maybe when the right case comes along, it will be more difficult to win because of the bad case law that was created when they pursued the cases that weren't a slam dunk. I've worked with them in coalitions and this is what I've observed over time.

It's a problem.

I love the ACLU, but I don't think of them as radical - I tend to think of them as conservative. I don't mean that in a political sense, I mean it in the way that they choose their cases.

 

SunnyGoth, thanks for the info; that makes a lot of sense. Last year, when the gropefests started, I wondered how long it would take the ACLU to mount a case, especially since they were collecting stories of abuse on their website. When months went by, then more months, then more, I gave up. I guess I can only hope that someday, somehow, they'll do something about this. But maybe they're convinced they'll lose, so, as you say, it would set a bad precedent.

Gosh, things just go from bad to depressing.

 

Yeah, it is really depressing. Frustrating too. I know they're looking for the best case, but the deck is so stacked against people who want to bring suit.

And with the difficulty with the law, and Congress showing no signs of repealing the act that created the TSA, the only thing left is political action, protests and boycotts.

 

I went to a panel discussion on unwarranted search and seizure in the DC Metro last April sponsored by the UDC Law School. There were 5 people on the panel, including someone from the ACLU. I told him I was grossly disappointed by their inaction on the TSA and asked why I should believe they'd be any more active on the DC Metro searches. Another panel member, a guy from the Cato Institute, said he believed the solution would have to come from the people -- it would have to be political and not judicial -- and several others on the panel nodded their heads in agreement.

But my confidence in the American public is low.

 

And here's what depresses me most about this statement.

These things are so rampant now, they aren't shocking. And it appears they've dialed them back, to boot, which I think was in the cards all along.

It'll be near impossible now to find an incident so "bad" it would make a good case. And I think that was TSA's plan from the getgo.