IT’S THE CULMINATION OF A LONGSTANDING TREND: Former ACLU leader Ira Glasser slams organization’s ‘progressive’ new agenda. During the ACLU’s heyday, from the 1950s to the mid-1970s, it was a liberal organization, but one with a genuine commitment to freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and due process. It’s been on a long, gradual decline since then into just another lefty pressure group. In my 2003 book, You Can’t Say That!, I identified significant slippage in the ACLU's commitment to civil liberties. I heard through the grapevine that then-ACLU president Nadine Strossen said that my depiction of her organization was inaccurate. I sent word back through my source that if she could identify any factual errors, I would be happy to publicly apologize and correct them. I never got a response.