The Fall of the ACLU

The august body was whisper quiet as Cancel Culture ravaged western culture.

By Christian Toto

July 31, 2026

https://amgreatness.com/2026/07/31/the-fall-of-the-aclu/

Pop culture can linger longer than many news headlines.

Take the 1981 TV movie Skokie. Danny Kaye starred as a Jewish Holocaust survivor protesting a planned Nazi march in his Chicago suburb. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) played a central role in the fact-based drama, defending the Nazis’ free speech rights despite their abhorrent views.

That’s what the American Civil Liberties Union did for decades—stand tall for the First Amendment. That Kaye drama made it crystal clear, even to those who never read a story tied to the civil rights group.

That ACLU, bold and unrelenting in its quest to preserve free speech, is mostly missing these days. The august body was whisper-quiet as cancel culture ravaged Western culture. The group said little as comedians were censored both on stage and on social media.

The Twitter Files scandal came and went without any major ACLU pushback. Nor did the group weigh in when “sensitivity readers” rose up to censor authors like Agatha Christie, Roald Dahl, and Ian Fleming.

Heck, we all could have used the ACLU when social media giants censored or downplayed the Hunter Biden laptop scandal. The same could be said for YouTube and other platforms censoring disparate views on the recent pandemic, even though naysayers were often right on the money.

More recently, British singer M.I.A. got booted from Kid Cudi’s tour for sharing right-leaning views during a single concert appearance. Did the ACLU rush to her defense? No, but her lawyers did.

What about Jewish artists like Michael Rapaport and singer Matisyahu facing cancellation threats, and worse, for supporting Israel? Or conservative speakers getting harassed, or worse, for daring to speak on college campuses?

The list goes on and on.

Instead, the ACLU made headlines recently for feting Bruce Springsteen. Why honor the 76-year-old rock icon? Could it be because The Boss turned his 2026 tour into a No Kings-themed event complete with nightly Trump-bashing?

You be the judge.

The ACLU honored Springsteen, former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, and three others with the new Ralph Ellison Award for Defenders of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties in the Arts, Business, Science, and Sports.

What do Springsteen and Kaepernick have in common? Both aggressively push liberal points of view via their celebrity platforms. Did they speak out against any of the above speech infringements?

No.

Has the ACLU honored Elon Musk, the man who brought freer speech back to Twitter? What about John Cleese, the Monty Python alum who has spent a decade promoting free speech in the arts, especially as wokeness rocked the culture?

No.

A glimpse at the ACLU’s web page tells the rest of the story. The group now hyper-focuses on a variety of issues beyond speech—trans issues, racial justice, reproductive freedom, and “smart justice.” The latter’s goal is to reduce the prison population by 50 percent.

That explains plenty.

The good news? The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) has stepped up to do the ACLU’s job on the speech front. It hits both Democrats and Republicans and doesn’t water down its mission for “justice”-based causes.

Maybe Hollywood should make a movie about FIRE. Call it a spiritual sequel to Skokie.