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ACLU steps in, and Manassas backpedals on family housing ordinance Date published: 1/11/2006
Big Mama Manassas
THE AMERICAN Civil Liberties Union seldom sits on the fence. Many people consider its positions extreme--dangerous even. But recently, in a housing case, the ACLU took on an edict that perhaps only those of the Aryan Brotherhood could love. Indeed, the ACLU spoke for the great majority of Americans who might have held their noses in a "pee-yew" expression over the Manassas City Council's discriminatory folly.
City fathers, who should not be confused with the municipality's brain trust, just last month enacted an ordinance that restricts households to immediate relatives, plus one unrelated person, and excludes aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, cousins, and other extended-family members. Let's see, who might suffer most from this ordinance? Immigrant families, perhaps? Latinos, Asians? Any family who settles in this country and shares a dwelling with its close and not-so-close kinfolk as they all try to establish themselves in an unfamiliar new world? Might similar circumstances a century ago have faced German, Polish, and Irish families? These were the former newcomers who donated sweat and blood to the Industrial Revolution, suffered through the Great Depression, and defended America in two world wars. Would the Manassas City Council have greeted those immigrants with the words, "Bring me your tired, your poor; you just can't live under the same roof together"? Criticism flared as word of the ordinance's passage spread and its implications became clear. But it was the ACLU's leap into the case that caused Manassas officials to suspend enforcement of the rule and begin to consider scrapping it. Illegal-immigration issues can be addressed by the appropriate agencies and current laws. So what was Manassas' fallback rationale for its family-busting, opportunity-squashing ordinance? The city claimed a need to somehow deal with pressures on public services. But other similarly beset places in Northern Virginia manage to cope with those without a statute steeped in nativism. The Virginia ACLU's executive director, Kent Willis, notes that the city's decision to suspend enforcement is insufficient; the only good remedy is repeal. Indeed, Manassas should get this law off its books quickly, hoping that it once again will be remembered for its role in Civil War history, rather than for warring on civil liberties.
1. Be respectful. No personal attacks.
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