Why Target Greenpeace?
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) works in courts, legislatures and communities to defend and preserve individual rights and liberties guaranteed by the Constitution and laws of the United States. The People for the American Way Foundation advocates legal and social justice and the fundamental rights and freedoms of the Constitution. Editors note: The following is an excerpt from the amicus brief filed by the ACLU and PFAWF. Click here to read the whole brief. For two hundred years, the United States government has refrained from prosecuting advocacy groups whose members occasionally engage in peaceful civil disobedience to convey a constitutionally protected message. The prosecution of Greenpeace indicates a sea change in that policy. Until now, only individual members of those groups have been prosecuted for their nonviolent, albeit unlawful, acts of civil disobedience. Greenpeace asserts, and there is reason to believe, that the government has selectively prosecuted it becau
