Hey everybody, it's me, W. Camel Bell. Welcome back to the ACLU's podcast at Liberty.

Here we explore the big questions on the big issues affecting our big country and especially our hardest hit in most vulnerable communities.

And if you've been listening, you know that a big topic on this show is the First Amendment.

I mean, it's kind of the ACLU's thing.

It's because of our right to free speech that we have to protest Trump,

advocate for our neighbors, and defend our privacy.

But First Amendment rights don't mean much if they don't protect everybody.

And I mean everybody.

The ACLU has famously protected people who maybe you don't agree with, but that's how free speech works.

If that sounds like the kind of lesson you'd learn on Sesame Street, it actually is.

When the Trump administration moved to defund PBS and NPR earlier this year, the ASLU claimed it was a First Amendment violation.

But they defended Ernie Burt and Big Bird in an unexpected way by defending the National Rifle Association.

Yeah, that's what I said.

Last year, the ACLU won a Supreme Court case on behalf of the NRA, arguing that groups can't be punished or suppressed by government officials

because of their viewpoints. Even those kind of viewpoints. For some listeners, the fact that

the ACLU defended the NRA might come as a surprise, but the ACLU has a history of defending

free speech across the political spectrum. As the ACLU's Ben Wiser put it when we spoke earlier this year,

until the day when you stand up to defend the speech rights of someone who deeply offends you,

you have never actually supported free speech.

On this week's episode, we're exploring the idea of First Amendment Rights for all.

And I mean for all.

Today's episode is brought to you by number one and the letter A.

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