As a long-time member of the ACLU, I am proud to be part of an organization that protects the first Amendment.

But this article in the New York Times summarizes a lot of recent concerns about the leadership of the ACLU.

In interviews, some members of the group behind the Web site pointed to internal controversies that have been made public, starting with an agreement that obligated the A.C.L.U. to check its staff against government lists of suspected terrorists to participate in the federal employees’ annual fund-raising drive known as the Combined Federal Campaign at the same time it was criticizing the lists.

Since then, controversies have developed over other matters, including questions about the A.C.L.U.’s use of data mining to profile donors, a plan to monitor its employees’ e-mail messages and efforts to control board members’ access to staff and information.

Donors have confronted the organization over proposals that would have discouraged its board members from publicly criticizing the organization’s policies and internal administration.

“Any one of those things by itself is unacceptable, but you could say it was an error in judgment and let it go,” said David Goldberger, a law professor at Ohio State University, who defended the Nazis’ right to march in Skokie, Ill., when he worked at the A.C.L.U.’s Illinois affiliate. “But when you start to see more than one of these kinds of things emerge, then it’s clear that the organization’s leadership has let it drift away from its core principles, and without those principles, it has no value.”

An old saying goes:  “What’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.”  I would say:  “What’s good enough for the watched is good enough for the watchers.”

An organization that cannot do its job with transparency and honesty; and without infringing on individual concience and freedom deserves to be replaced by an organization that can.

Personally, I think that the ACLU can do it’s job with transparency and honesty. 

This organization has a number of objections to actions taken the last couple of years by the ACLU.