During the Obama presidency, the Department of Education famously sent to colleges and universities a "Dear Colleague" letter that essentially mandated that people accused of sexual wrongdoing (ranging from alleged harassment to actual rape) should be denied any semblance of due process.  This mandate mainly affected men and disproportionately affected black men.

Education secretary Betsy DeVos issued revised guidelines that righted this wrong.  Colleges and universities must now provide civil rights protections to the accused.  The era of the kangaroo court is over.

Or is it?

On Thursday, the ACLU proudly announced that it's suing Betsy DeVos to reverse her new guidelines and revert to the "Dear Colleague" standard:

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos' revised federal guidelines on how sexual assault allegations should be handled on college and K-12 campuses are the target of a federal lawsuit filed Thursday claiming that the changes would "inflict significant harm" on victims and "dramatically undermine" their civil rights.

The suit, filed on behalf of four advocacy groups for people who have been sexually assaulted, including Know Your IX and Girls for Gender Equity, is the first that seeks to block the Education Department's new provisions before they go into effect on Aug. 14.

The rules championed by DeVos effectively bolster the rights of due process for those accused of sexual assault and harassment, allowing for live hearings and cross-examinations. It's what agency officials say was lacking during the Obama administration to protect all students under Title IX, a 1972 law that prohibits gender discrimination, including sexual assault, at schools.

"This new federal effort to weaken Title IX makes it more difficult for victims of sexual harassment or sexual assault to continue their educations and needlessly comes amid a global pandemic," according to the suit, which was filed in U.S. District Court in Maryland by the American Civil Liberties Union and the New York-based law firm Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP.

We’re not letting Betsy DeVos roll back critical civil rights protections for survivors of sexual harassment and assault.

рџ—ЈпёЏ Schools should be free from sex-based discrimination, including sexual harassment and assault. https://t.co/xnLcJzPyJ3

— ACLU (@ACLU) May 14, 2020

Robby Soave was disappointed in the ACLU:

It breaks my heart to report that the ACLU, ostensibly an organization that defends civil liberties, is suing to prevent Betsy DeVos from strengthening civil liberties protections on college campuses. https://t.co/RBYUEXZXc6

— Robby Soave (@robbysoave) May 14, 2020

Soave's disappointment reflects the way in which people have bought into the claim that the ACLU is actually about civil rights.  It's not.  Socialists started it in 1920, and it's always been true to those roots.  These are the Founders:

• Helen Keller — radical socialist
• Roger Baldwin — follower of anarchist Emma Goldman; a member of the Industrial Workers of the World (Wobblies) (the anarchist/socialist answer to the AFL); early supporter of Stalin before rejecting Stalin's approach.
• Crystal Eastman — socialist
• Walter Nelles — socialist
• Morris Ernst — surprisingly, not an open socialist, and, during the Red Scares that began in the 1940s, he turned against communism.
• Albert DeSilver — no info on his political ideology
• Arthur Garfield Hays — progressive
• Jane Addams — democratic socialist
• Felix Frankfurter — an early supporter of the Soviet Union and socialists
• Elizabeth Gurley Flynn — chairwoman of the National Committee of the Communist Party USA; died visiting the Soviet Union

In case after case, the ACLU has fought for the First Amendment, not because it believes in free speech, but because it wanted to ensure that American socialists got the chance to speak.  The Constitution for them was a tool, not a principle.

The ACLU's continued commitment to abandoning the Constitution or using it as a cover to achieve socialist ends can also be seen in its approach to Jack Phillips.  Phillips is the Colorado baker whom the left is systematically attacking for his religiously based refusal to put his artistry on cakes celebrating same-sex "marriages" or transgenderism.  Religious freedom, of course, is a core constitutional right.

Some might think Phillips's case sounds like a job for the ACLU, but they'd be wrong.  The ACLU isn't defending Phillips.  Instead, it represented the same-sex couple that originally sued Phillips for refusing to decorate their cake.

So, no, it's not surprising that the ACLU should be opposed to civil liberties on American campuses.  Its goal is now, as it always has been, to advance socialist policies.