Uncivil Liberties

"I don't think the Republic will collapse without the ACLU," says Jacobson. "But it will take us longer to come around to positions which involved government interference with individual rights without an ACLU. It is a base more than anything else. A strong ACLU presence provides a base for a community, a touchstone.

"All you can do is be the voice crying in the wilderness, reminding people who they are, really, as Americans. And then, the rest, you have to hope on a basis of their conscience. But that's really all you can do. The mighty ACLU isn't."

There will be a meeting the night Wednesday, December 8 at the ACLU headquarters on West Gray to form a new interim board of directors.