Some things in life go together, and some things clearly don’t go together. Many people think that chocolate and peanut butter go well together as do french fries and hamburgers. Even grape jelly on a sausage patty biscuit (don’t knock it ’til you try it).
Other things, though, clearly don’t go well together such as hair in a peanut butter sandwich, sand in your potato salad, or mayo in your iced tea (I must be hungry while writing this). Most people could agree that those are combinations that seem unlikely to work together.
But here’s another one for you: The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the National Rifle Association (NRA). Those two groups are on the opposite sides of the political spectrum on, probably, most issues.
Yet, the ACLU is going to represent the NRA before the Supreme Court Of The United States. No kidding. Tom Ozimek writes,
The National Rifle Association (NRA) has found an unlikely ally in of the left-leaning American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which will represent the gun rights advocacy group at the U.S. Supreme Court in a case that centers of the constitutional right of free speech.
The NRA in 2018 brought a lawsuit against Maria Vullo, former superintendent of the New York Department of Financial Services (DFS), alleging that she violated the First Amendment by pressuring regulated financial institutions like banks and insurers to stop doing business with the gun rights group.
The case made its way through the courts, eventually landing before the Supreme Court, which in November agreed to take it up.
“We’re representing the NRA at the Supreme Court in their case against New York’s Department of Financial Services for abusing its regulatory power to violate the NRA’s First Amendment rights. The government can’t blacklist an advocacy group because of its viewpoint,” the ACLU said in a post on X.
Frankly, I had trouble believing it when I first read it, too, and I would still have trouble believing it if I hadn’t read it from a news source that I trust. It’s just that crazy of a situation.
But I’ll hand it to the ACLU for doing the right thing in protecting free speech even for people that they would otherwise degree with on a variety of issues. That’s, unfortunately, a rare thing to see in this day and age of political polarization when those on the political left (mostly) will refuse to even talk with family members because they disagree on a political issue.
May we see more of this kind of cooperation between different people when the values of our Constitution, including the Bill of Rights, are being fought for.