'Accelerating crisis': Ousted Florida ACLU members' lawsuit points to political infighting

A new lawsuit alleges former ACLU of Florida board members were improperly removed after resisting “partisan political activity” and “mission drift away from core civil liberties issues toward socio-economic justice,” revealing turmoil within one of Florida’s most prominent advocacy groups.

The accusations in the lawsuit are disputed by the ACLU of Florida, which released a statement saying the former board members were removed after an investigation by the ACLU's national office determined their conduct "threatened substantial, ongoing and irreparable harm to the ACLU affiliate."

The ACLU of Florida is highly active in state policy debates.

The group has participated in a series of lawsuits seeking to overturn legislation pushed by the GOP Legislature and Gov. Ron DeSantis targeting everything from voting to racial discussions in schools and the right to protest.

ACLU political activity spawned by former President Donald Trump, not DeSantis, is at the core of the recent lawsuit, though.

Lawsuit describes a divide with national chapter

The lawsuit describes a conflict between former ACLU of Florida board members and the national organization over the People Power initiative that was launched after Trump won the 2016 election.

ACLU’s national office created People Power “to organize at the grassroots level in response to the election of Donald Trump,” according to the lawsuit, and activists involved in the campaign engaged in “partisan conduct” and “advocating for non-civil liberties goals, including… socio-economic reform.”

The lawsuit describes such conduct as problematic, echoing complaints in recent years that the ACLU has become too involved in left wing political activity outside the group’s core mission of defending civil liberties.

ACLU of Florida chapters passed resolutions in early 2017 urging the national group to address their concerns about People Power, according to the lawsuit.

Later that year, ACLU of Florida and its parent organization reached a written memorandum of understanding “to limit ACLU National’s messaging through the People Power platform within the state of Florida to messages consistent with the civil liberties priorities approved by the ACLU-FL board,” according to the lawsuit.

Yet People Power activists continued to stray from what ACLU of Florida board members viewed as the group’s mission, touting climate change, student debt relief, housing equity and broadband access as civil liberty issues, the lawsuit states.

Infighting at the ACLU of Florida

ACLU of Florida board members also had conflicts with some their own staff, who embraced the People Power campaign, according to the lawsuit, and engaged in messaging on "such socio-economic issues as the disparate impacts of climate change and student debt relief."

Tensions between ACLU of Florida staff and board members "grew significantly" last year, according to the lawsuit, and staff members filed a formal complaint with the national organization in August.

The Aug. 18 complaint was lodged by the eight senior staff members at ACLU of Florida and had the "full support" of the group's two most recent executive directors. It alleged "long-standing systemic problems at the Affiliate, including a flawed organizational structure and an adverse work environment," according to a summary of the investigation conducted by the ACLU national office's "Evaluation Team," which was filed with the lawsuit.

The ACLU of Florida board's executive committee hired an independent legal counsel to investigate the staff complaint and board members tried to "informally resolve these tensions" but "staff rejected these overtures" and pressed the national organization to act, alleging ACLU of Florida's board did not align with the group's national mission, according to the lawsuit.

'Accelerating crisis': Lawsuit says national chapter ousted all Florida board members except one

In March, the executive committee of ACLU's national board voted to temporarily remove all of ACLU of Florida's board members except one, who was made president and allowed to select up to four new board members.

That decision was made permanent in May by a resolution stating that "the affiliate's conduct... amounted to a serious violation of national administrative policy and threatened substantial ongoing harm to the ACLU." ACLU of Florida was put under involuntary administrative supervision for a year.

The investigation by ACLU's national office found an "accelerating crisis" brought on by a "chronically dysfunctional" ACLU of Florida board. It also concluded that ACLU of Florida staff "including women of color, have been subjected to discriminatory treatment," according to the lawsuit.

"ACLU’s national office commissioned external investigations of the conduct of the ACLU of Florida’s board and held an extensive hearing which included a thorough and careful review of the facts and circumstances," said ACLU Foundation of Florida Director of Communications Gaby Guadalupe. "The investigations identified conduct by some members the of board of the ACLU of Florida that amounted to a serious violation of national administrative policies and which threatened substantial, ongoing and irreparable harm to the ACLU affiliate."

Michael Barfield, one of the former ACLU of Florida board members who was removed, said ACLU’s national office has produced no evidence to substantiate the allegation of discrimination against women of color, and he strongly disputed that any discrimination occurred, noting that the group’s leadership was extremely diverse.

As to the allegation of chronic dysfunction, Barfield said: “I think the chronic dysfunction from their perspective is our pushback about mission drift.” He argued the organization has been "highly functional while serving on the front lines of the culture wars."

"From implementing constitutional constraints on redistricting, overturning the ban on gay adoption, to voting rights for former felons, we have prevailed in the court of law and the court of public opinion," he added.

Guadalupe said the allegations in the lawsuit "are an effort to mislead the public about the underlying facts within the complaint.”

“The ACLU of Florida and its national office remain committed to upholding the organization’s core values and commitments to the nonpartisan defense of civil liberties and free speech," Guadalupe said in a statement. "Accordingly, we categorically dispute the veracity of any claims to the contrary."

The removed board members are seeking to be reinstated. They argue that "nothing in the bylaws of ACLU-FL or of ACLU National allows for the removal of any director of the ACLU-FL board of directors except by a majority vote of the entire ACLU-FL board of directors," according to the lawsuit.

The plaintiffs in the lawsuit are Barfield of Sarasota County, Jeanne Baker and Jeff Borg of Miami-Dade County, James Benjamin and Martin Novoa of Broward County and Daniel Cook and Marcia Hayden of Palm Beach County.

The lawsuit was filed in Sarasota County, in Florida's 12th Judicial Circuit, against ACLU's national office and four individuals.

Barfield said the lawsuit is necessary but unfortunate.

"Rather than being out there fighting for our core constitutional rights, the ACLU is fighting amongst itself and that’s never a good day for civil liberties," he said.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: ACLU turmoil: Lawsuit by ousted Florida members alleges 'mission drift'