Civil Liberties Stop at the ACLU's door

I couldn't help but be amused by this article from the Times:

The American Civil Liberties Union, which since its inception has fought to protect free speech rights, is scheduled to begin a debate today over whether to discipline - or potentially move to oust - two board members for speaking to reporters. The executive committee of the A.C.L.U. board will discuss whether Wendy Kaminer and Michael Meyers have acted inappropriately as board members. The two have criticized some actions by the executive director, Anthony D. Romero, and the executive committee for what they said was a failure to provide proper oversight.

A couple of comments. First, if you can believe it, Kaminer and Meyers were criticizing the ACLU for not being liberal enough (sort of shocking when I think about the stringent intellectualism that characterizes Kaminer's book I'm Dysfunctional, You're Dysfunction). Second, it's rather a cheap shot on my part to laugh about the kybosh on freedom of speech within the ACLU itself. In fact, board members do have a fiduciary duty to the entity they serve, and that can often take the form of an obligation to keep dissent within the ranks. Although one could just as well argue that the true expression of fiduciary duty is to challenge Board action that is antithetical to the principles for which the entity stands. You can take your pick of these arguments.