Internal war erupts over focus and defense of First Amendment at Florida’s ACLU
An internal war has erupted in the American Civil Liberties Union as the organization that once defended the First Amendment rights of Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan is being sued by ousted members of the board of directors of its Florida affiliate because, they say, they resisted putting partisan politics over free speech protections.
In a lawsuit filed in state court in Sarasota late Friday, the seven board members — Jeanne Baker, Michael Barfield, James Benjamin, Jeff Borg, Daniel Cook, Marcia Hayden and Martin Novoa — allege that they were wrongfully removed last year by the national organization after objecting to the organization’s shift in mission.
The lawsuit asks the court to restore their positions on the board and rule that the national organization and the staff of ACLU Florida violated the law when it removed the board because it was “unhappy with governance decisions that resisted partisan political activity, the mission drift away from core civil liberties issues towards socio-economic justice and other oversight functions exercised by the board of directors over staff.”
The suit comes just two weeks after the ACLU of Florida announced it is laying off 10% of its staff due to budget constraints.
In a statement, Executive Director Tiffani Lennon said the ACLU of Florida, a nonprofit known for pursuing legal challenges against the government, increased its staff to meet “an unprecedented onslaught of attacks on civil rights and liberties” in the state, but now finds itself needing to reduce its expenses by 20%.”
The plaintiffs do not address the financial challenges in their lawsuit but state that ideological differences and a disagreement over the naming of Lennon as the new executive director led the organization to violate the law.
ACLU supported gay marriage in Florida
For more than 20 years, the ACLU of Florida was led by Howard Simon, who retired in 2018. During that time, the organization helped to establish the right for gay couples to marry and adopt in the state of Florida, helped to advance the voting rights of former felons and engaged in redistricting legal challenges at both the state and local levels.
Lennon replaced Amy Turkel, who took over to serve as interim executive director in January 2022, after Micah W. Kubic held the post for three years but left to return to his home state of Kansas.
In the last year, the ACLU of Florida has seen a handful of high-profile court victories. It successfully persuaded a federal court to order fairer maps for the Jacksonville City Council and Duval County School Board for its 2023 elections and has challenged the Miami City Commission’s racial gerrymandering of commission district lines, winning one early decision that is being appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court while the overall case is yet to go to trial.
It is also challenging state legislation that seeks to criminalize abortion providers, and legislation restricting healthcare for transgender people.
But the simmering disagreement over whether the organization has stepped away from its founding principle — being a content-neutral defender of the First Amendment — preceded those initiatives.
Trump’s presidency a pivot point
The cleavage began in 2017, according to the 77-page complaint filed in Sarasota district court, when ACLU national started a “nationwide campaign known as ‘People Power’ whose purpose was to organize at the grassroots level in response to the election of Donald Trump as President.”
The lawsuit alleges that the People Power group engaged “partisan conduct under the name and logo of the ACLU in violation of longstanding policy: improper fundraising solicitations; and advocating support for non-civil liberties goals” and “neither the ACLU-FL board nor the board leadership had any input into the decision.”
When the board pushed back, the national organization signed a memorandum of understanding that agreed to refrain from partisan political messages or advocating for socio-economic justice issues in Florida.
But, according to the lawsuit, the agreement was short lived and the organization ran afoul of the agreement “by touting broadband access and housing equity as civil liberty issues” and “by treating student-debt relief and climate change as civil liberties and ACLU issues.”
The lawsuit said the Florida board also objected to guidelines that emerged after the ACLU sided with the far-right groups responsible for the violence in Charlottesville. The guidelines suggested lawyers should balance taking a free speech case representing groups whose “values are contrary to our values” against the potential such a case might give “offense to marginalized groups.”
Mary Ellen Klas can be reached at meklas@miamiherald.com and @MaryEllenKlas
