In yesterday’s massive defamation award to actor Johnny Depp, his ex-wife Amber Heard was left holding a bill for $15,000,000. Even after a reduction for her own award and a statutory reduction of the punitive damage portion, Heard is still looking at $8,350,000 in damages. Many view that amount (which is $1.35 million more than her divorce settlement) to be justified in light of the damage caused to Depp’s reputation and career. However, the stain of this verdict should be shared with others, even if they avoided the sting of actual damages. That includes many in the media (including the Washington Post staff) who rushed to paint Heard as a victim and Depp as an abuser. Yet, the greatest condemnation should be reserved for the organization that not only pushed that narrative but actually helped draft the defamatory column: the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
The ACLU’s role in this scandal emerged during the trial. While Heard was accused of reneging on her public pledge to give the divorce settlement to charity, she did give a large donation to the ACLU. The organization then made her “Ambassador for women’s rights, with a focus on gender-based violence.”
During the trial, evidence was introduced on how the ACLU staff helped Heard crafted the defamatory column. ACLU staffer Robin Shulman said in an email to Heard that she tried to capture Heard’s “fire and rage” in a draft. It was also reported that the ACLU’s executive director, Anthony Romero, and legal director, David Cole, also made contributions.
ACLU staffer Jessica Weitz acknowledged in an email that she was aware that there was the chance of litigation and told Heard “I want to make sure nothing was said in here that puts you in jeopardy with your [non-disclosure agreement].”
It is not uncommon for celebrities to use ghost writers and editors. However, many of us questioned what Romero and the ACLU were doing in the middle of this celebrity scandal. The answer is that the ACLU long ago abandoned its celebrated legacy as a fearless organization fighting for civil liberties and individual rights.
Under Romero, the ACLU has become openly political and increasingly scandal-prone. The political agenda has corrupted the organization in the sense of cutting it adrift from the strong principles that once held it firmly to its original mission. I have no doubt that the new direction is motivated by deeply held political values. I also do not believe that it has taken this course for purely monetary gains or donations. It is corrupted in the sense of debasing its legacy. The ACLU once represented something more than just another political advocacy group.
As with many other long-standing supporters of the ACLU, I have been critical of the politicization of the ACLU in the last decade. Many of the “Old guard” at the ACLU left the organization as it took on a public agenda, including abandoning its long tradition of supporting the least popular in our society in favor of individual rights. Those critics include former ACLU former head Ira Glasser, who questioned whether the ACLU still maintains its defining commitment to free speech values.
This trend was evident in its painfully nuanced approach to “hate speech” after criticism following the Charlottesville protests. Free speech protection was once the touchstone of the ACLU which was fearless in its unpopular advocacy. It now seems like an area of open retreat for the organization.
Some of us were particularly alarmed when the ACLU filed to oppose due process rights for students at our colleges and universities, particularly in the imposition of a higher and more consistent evidentiary standard. ACLU filed suit to try to block the increased due process protections mandated by former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos in her proposed reforms. I have long been a critic of the rollback on due process on our campuses and noted the absence of the ACLU in leading this fight. The ACLU sounded much like its historic opponents in decrying the scourge of too much due process as inhibiting greater enforcement.
With this free fall at ACLU has come an endless line of controversies like an ACLU staffer encouraging activists to “break” Sen. Krysten Sinema (D., Ariz.) and another staffer opposed the admission into college of Nicholas Sandmann. At points, it has become a parody of its own self like celebrating the legacy of Ruth Bader Ginsburg by editing her words as offensive.
The payment of the large donation by Heard to the ACLU only magnified concerns over what seemed like an all-hands-on-deck effort to support her public claims. Heard publicly pledged $3.5 million to the ACLU and previously claimed that she made good on the pledge. The trial showed that $1.3 million was donated in her name and it appears that $500,000 likely came from Elon Musk, who once dated Heard.
The ACLU has reportedly filed an action against Depp for $86,000 in reimbursement for the costs of looking for evidence in its files.
The ACLU was once the North Star for those of us in the civil liberties community. The loss of the organization as an independent and apolitical voice in our legal system has been devastating. The emergence of the ACLU at the heart of one of the most sordid celebrity trials in history is the final measure of the decline of this once celebrated civil liberties group. It was not easy to get here. It took the determined work of former President Susan N. Herman, current president Deborah Archer, and Romeo to erase decades of apolitical and impactful advocacy on behalf of civil liberties for all. The trial put the new ACLU on full review as just another political advocacy group. What many saw was not the courageous group that once defended the free speech rights of Nazis. Instead, what they saw was an organization seemed to be pandering to celebrities.
In the Depp-Heard trial, the ACLU finally hit the rock bottom as an organization in free fall. It ultimately was the reputation of the ACLU, not Depp, that may have suffered the most in the trial. Ironically, for critics, Amber Heard became the fitting face and ambassador of the ACLU: conflicted, confused, and corrupted.
Long ago, I was a supporter of the ACLU–until they lurched far Left. I was baffled by that back then, but understand it better now.
The most sordid celebrity trial in history? I think not.
I belonged to the ACLU from late 60s through the 70s. Fervently believed in the guiding philosophy. Was my college representative to the local chapter. Got to know many there and what they really believed in. Honestly most were closet communists where the ACLU gave them sanctioned ‘cover’. The complete hijacking by the FAR left was and still is one of the biggest disappointments of my life. Seems like every day something comes up where i feel the ACLU shoud be involved (i.e. AG emploring th FBI to investigates parents expressing their views at school board meetings, etc.). But they’ve turned on themselves. Shame.
This is why I disagreed with the “believe all women” movement of the Left.
Neither virtue nor guilt resides in someone’s sex. Abusive women manipulate, drive to suicide, abuse, maim, and kill men in this country every year. Just because women are weaker, on average, than men, does not mean they cannot lie, abuse, or make a false accusation.
When will our society learn not to jump on a bandwagon and wait for allegations to be investigated? It would save the country a lot of heartache.
Exactly, men and women are equal in rights and complementary in Nature. We should acknowledge and respect the dignity and agency of both sexes to make good and bad choices, and both women and men do make good and bad choices, and, of course, there are the medically-induced, impulsive, and pathological fringe.
The “believe all women” movement is NOT of the Left (nor the hypocritical “Me Too” movement, for that matter). It is the so-called “woke” neoliberal centrists who promote Identity Politics and virtue signaling. The actual Left are for none of that. What mostly concerns us is implementing Medicare For All, increasing the minimum wage to a living wage, forgiving college debt, a free educational system, stopping the United States from interfering with the governments of other countries, stopping the U.S. from entering/starting wars with other countries, and making the wealthy and corporations pay their fair share. What do all of those things have in common? They’re for the mutual benefit of everyone, regardless of race, color, gender, religion, etc. Unlike wokeness and Identity Politics, which focus on someone’s individual traits being more important than the whole (i.e., they think it’s more important that a woman be president than that the woman stands for certain values).
Uh huh. You’re simply trying to redefine politics to make yourself look good. You are essentially acting like Mitt Romney. You two REALLY KNOW what makes something Right or Left and anyone who disagrees isn’t “real”
Since there are only a dozen or so of you “real” types, the rest of us would argue that you’re both delusional and irrelevant.
Forgiving college debt? These are adults who took out these loans and now you want me and all other taxpayers to pick up their not liking what they voluntarily did? Sorry, you are grossly mistaken. It’s just a typical Dem ploy to gain votes from frankly, stupid young adults.
And BTW, what do you say to all the RESPONSIBLE students who have paid off their debt? Nice job, suckers?
If school is too expensive, then guess what? Go to a less expensive school or a community college, like normal people do when something is too extensive. Do you lament that you can’t afford a Rolls-Royce but buy it on credit, when you could have paid cash for a Cadillac? No one will have sympathy for your position on this.
There was a reason why college debt was not included in the bankruptcy law of our country…
College education is an investment in one’s future, and it is in the best interest of the ones being educated to make sure that their investment was wise. Unfortunately there have been millions have chosen not to make the best of their investment, even some that should not have been “investing” at all.
To the extent that some took student loans fraudulently offered, the federal and stat governments might be encouraged to relieve some of the burden. But to have government assume all of the burden is to negate all of the responsibilities that the borrowers…and more frequently, their parents…willingly and enthusiastically assumed. And, it is patently unfair to dump that entire responsibility onto the backs of the general public.
If that isn’t a matter for the ACLU to take up, it is hard to imagine what it would take. The public should not pay for the mistakes of the private investor…and a student taking out loans for his education is clearly an investor that has the obligation to assure the investment is wisely manaaged.
“They hired the money, didn’t they?”-Coolidge
“’woke’ neoliberal centrists…” The words “woke” and “centrist” don’t belong together. You are obviously a pre-2016 Sanders acolyte. Pre-2016 Sanders, before he caved to the wokesters, analyzed policy in terms of income and class. Now, Bernie and his Bros, like you, own the identity politics and toxicity of the woke Left. Don’t try to wriggle out of it.
America is not making new Americans.
The American fertility rate is in a “death spiral.”
American women don’t have babies.
American babies don’t have mothers.
Children are frequently filled with confusion and hatred.
Society is deteriorating.
But, who cares, as long as women are becoming men and men are becoming women it’s all good.
America knows what’s important, right?
Right.
“The ACLU was once the North Star for those of us in the civil liberties community.”
I do like well done satire. Please play again soon.
Dropped my membership the better part of a decade ago. The country is poorer from the loss of the ACLU I respected and supported for a lot of years.
I will point out the obvious: unless one has been asleep, they would know the ACLU snd similar have been lost for decades. Stop supporting them and their ilk.
After reading reporting on the trial I was wondering if Depp can now also sue the ACLU for defamation after their involvement in the writing of the op-ed at the center of the matter came out during the trial.
the democrat playbook:
1 identify a respected institution
2 kill it
3 gut it
4 wear its carcass as a skin suit while demanding respect
You have identified the totalitarian guide book index.
Michael Sussman was acquitted by a jury of his peers.
That’s the problem.
THE CONSTITUTION WAS NOT ONLY INJURED, BUT KILLED
WHAT NEXT FRESH HELL?
______________________
Now you grasp why the American Founders omitted the incoherence and hysteria of the equivalent of the 19th Amendment.
In 1789, there was no discernible justification for additional amendments; that condition existed in 1920 and persists to this day.
Additional amendments “…as will not injure the constitution,…” were merely adverted and conjectured, not recommended.
The “great beast” was not to be handed the reins.
The literal “manifest tenor” of the Constitution was to hold dominion as assured by responsible men.
Alas, the nation has been corrupted since 1860, when Karl Marx convinced Abraham Lincoln to take America off of the Constitution standard and put it on the Communist Manifesto standard.
The unspoken truth of the 19th Amendment is comprised of abortion, the American fertility rate in a “death spiral,” and a population of fewer and fewer Americans including increasing numbers of unassimilable foreign citizens, customs, traditions, proclivities and allegiances (the son of a radical African activist and extremist intended to “fundamentally transform the United States”).
America did not need more Chiefs; America needed more Indians (i.e. more babies).
In a rational society, it is “lonely at the top;” in America the top is overcrowded and it “runneth over.”
The lunatics have taken over the asylum – America is an irrational and confounding freak show – women are men, men are women and more Americans die than are born.
Soon enough, there will be no America left for feminazi suffragettes to conquer and subjugate.
__________________________________________________________________________
” And if there are amendments desired, of such a nature as will not injure the constitution, and they can be ingrafted so as to give satisfaction to the doubting part of our fellow citizens; the friends of the federal government will evince that spirit of deference and concession for which they have hitherto been distinguished.”
– James Madison, Proposed Amendments to the Constitution, June 8, 1789
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“the people are nothing but a great beast…
I have learned to hold popular opinion of no value.”
– Alexander Hamilton
________________
“The true reason (says Blackstone) of requiring any qualification, with regard to property in voters, is to exclude such persons, as are in so mean a situation, that they are esteemed to have no will of their own.”
“If it were probable that every man would give his vote freely, and without influence of any kind, then, upon the true theory and genuine principles of liberty, every member of the community, however poor, should have a vote… But since that can hardly be expected, in persons of indigent fortunes, or such as are under the immediate dominion of others, all popular states have been obliged to establish certain qualifications, whereby, some who are suspected to have no will of their own, are excluded from voting; in order to set other individuals, whose wills may be supposed independent, more thoroughly upon a level with each other.”
– Alexander Hamilton, The Farmer Refuted, 1775
It is interesting that the jury found that Depp’s lawyer calling Heard’s abuse allegations a “hoax” was found to be defamatory.
How often have we heard Trump accuse people of engaging in a “hoax”? How often have we heard Hannity and Carlson charge it?
I hope that many more persons are held liable for their potentially defamatory claims of “hoax.” It’s good that one’s freedom of speech may not be so “free” after all….
jeffsilberman – You are incorrect. The jury found statement 2 on the jury form to be defamatory. Mr. Waldman could not prove the damage to PH3 were a set-up. Some attorneys think this was a split the baby decision because of a holdout on the jury. Even though the statutory limit is $350k on punitive damages, the jury awarded Mr. Deep $5M in punitive damages.
Several attorneys have stated they think Johnny has a good chance of overturning that on appeal. They this Amber’s chances are slim.
Sometimes people say Hoax and it is true.
The Steele dossier was a Hoax, the Alpha bank nonsense was a hoax.
That is what ewe call it when humans create a false story from whole cloth and call it the truth – a hoax.
If Trump, hannity and Carlson have called the collusion delusion a HOAX – they are correct.
I have no opinion on whether something associated with Depp-Herd was a hoax.
Conversely the claim that the 2020 election was stolen is NOT a hoax,
There is lots of evidence, you can choose for your self whether that evidence is dispositive or sufficient
But the evidence is real – not manufactured – therefore NOT A HOAX.
Someday maybe you will understand what is and is not a hoax
Defamation requires actual harm to an persons reputation from a false allegation.
Statements that do not harm a person are not defamatory.
Statements that are not demonstrably false are not defamtory.
Free speech – like all rights is about constraints on GOVERNMENT.
Your employer can preclude some speech while you are at work – in some cases even when you are not.
But the only consequence is the loss of your job.
You can preclude whatever speech you want in your own home – the cost of which is others leave your home.
Defamation is specifically damaging and false public speech about another – you are still free to say whatever you wish, but you may pay a cost for it.
Many of those here on the right arguing that Times V Sullivan should be reversed fail to grasp that it was a 5-4 decision and if one justice had shifted – the court would have found that defamation laws violated free speech. There was a 9-0 majority that wanted defamation of public figures to be damn near impossible.
Calling something a hoax is almost never defamatory. Saying someone perpetrated a hoax is defamatory if there was no hoax.
Perfectly stated. We need the real civil libertarians to create the NEWACLU which, ironically, would be the old one. I’ll chip in.
+100
I recently got a donation letter from the ACLU in the mail and I did what every patriotic American should do…I took a magic marker and I wrote in huge print that I was giving ZERO DOLLARS to them. Of course I mailed the pre-paid envelope back so that they would have to pay the postage for seeing my “comment”. This is what we should all do when asked for donations to our schools that have turned into little left wing labs.
Pffft. Amateur. Back in the 1980/90s, when Pro-Abortion political candidates used to send postage-paid, self-addressed envelope asking for money, my Pro-Life friends and I would get a telephone book, wrap it in brown paper bag, tape the envelope to the package and take it to the post office. They delivered it as is.
If they were outrageous enough to ask for money using abortion as their pitch, we reasoned we would bankrupt their political campaign funding. Oddly they removed us from their mailing list. Those were the days!
“clever as snakes, innocent as doves”
Estovir, I am humbled by your actions. Good job!
Being part of the Pro-Life movement showed me how dark and evil the Pro-Aborts are. When I was in college in the 80s, several of us would protest the abortion centers. Being Catholic we carried our rosaries, and prayed together the Rosary on the city sidewalks. The Pro-Aborts would spit on us, hurl balloons filled with red dye, and shouted obscenities taking the Lord’s name in vain and desecrating a crucifix, an image of the Blessed Virgin Mary. We would not bat an eye, and just kept praying to their terror.
Fun times. It was sober training for these present times. We saw the face of evil in them and I still do.
Another handmade tale made with an em-pathetic appeal. Fortunately, most people do not subscribe to an ethical (i.e. relativistic, selective) religion, to diversity [dogma] (i.e. color judgment, class-based bigotry), which means the “burden”… uh, burden of misinformation, disinformation, and political myths is neither politically congruent (“=”) nor inclusive.
So the people at the ACLU are the darlings of the left and Project Veritas has it’s office raided because they are considered domestic terrorists. Does anyone notice a pattern of history? Do people recognize the danger? The time of placing ones head in the sand is over. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2525602/Burying-head-sand-Youre-feeling-guilty.html
I recall back in the 1980’s, trying to get the ACLU to represent someone on an issue of Constitutional rights. This request was turned down, because “there would not be enough publicity on the case.” Even back then, the ACLU only took cases that would give them the “fame” they needed to collect more donations. An unknown person’s rights, were not as important to them, as the “media spotlight,” that would bring in the donations.
Yeah, Johnny Depp Wins. Lets do some math. Depp gets $15 million & Amber Heard gets $2 million. So Depp gets 15-2= $13 million.
Meanwhile JT’s former law student, Michael Avenatti isn’t doing so good.
Michael Avenatti was sentenced Thursday to four years in prison for stealing book proceeds from Stormy Daniels, the porn actor who catapulted him to fame as he represented her in courtrooms and cable news programs during her legal battles with then-President Donald Trump.
The California lawyer, currently incarcerated, learned his fate in Manhattan federal court, where Judge Jesse M. Furman said the sentence will mean that Avenatti will spend another 2 1/2 years in prison on top of the 2 1/2 years he is already serving after another fraud conviction
Like every other institution lately, it’s failed us. I used to proudly proclaim my ACLU credential but when they decided woke trumped rights, I said “see ya.”
Well said Professor. It is not the ACLU that I remember from the 70’s, when I chaired my college chapter. Alas
The loss of the organization as an independent and apolitical voice in our legal system has been devastating. The emergence of the ACLU at the heart of one of the most sorted celebrity trials in history is the final measure of the decline of this once celebrated civil liberties group.
Sorted – Don’t yall mean sordid?
Maybe the ACLU will march through Skokie in brown shirts. They’re the new Nazis and scare anyone who believes in all the rights guaranteed by the First Amendment.
The ACLU has always been a mixed bag – they strongly supported the First Amendment while completely ignoring the Second.
Now they have degraded into a lefty action group.
Sic transit gloria.