The ACLU wants to be your estate planner
posted by Kaimipono D. Wenger
I got an unusual letter from the ACLU a little while ago. This one didn’t really focus on freedom of speech, or religion, or defendants’ rights. Instead, it was a pitch. Apparently, the ACLU would like to help me plan my estate. In fact, there is a section of the ACLU website dedicated to helping you avoid the estate tax. How? By giving your assets to the ACLU, of course!
Now I understand that these kinds of letters are a practical reality. Testamentary gifts are an important part of fund raising, and the ACLU (like many other charitable organizations) wants to encourage its members to make these kinds of gifts. Still, discussions about protecting assets and making smart investments and creating tax-advantaged gifts — well, it all sounds a little strange coming from the ACLU. After all, aren’t the Republicans the ones who are supposed to worry about me paying too much in estate taxes?
June 15, 2006 at 5:51 pm
Posted in: Politics
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Frank - June 15, 2006 at 7:43 pm
The ACLU also played a key role in opposing campaign finance laws in the Buckley era (and perhaps still today). I’ve often wondered if that was all about free speech absolutism, or if donor preferences played a role. As Owen Fiss’s Irony of Free Speech shows, liberty and equality are often in tension!
(and perhaps this article shows a liberty vs liberty conflict!:
http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FA061FF93B5A0C778EDDAC0894DE404482
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