Aclu Activist Ventures Into Enemy Territory Computer Privacy Issue Has Liberals Lining Up With North Idaho Conservatives

Only an FBI-type scare could bring Helen Chenoweth, the American Civil Liberties Union and a local conservative activist like Don Morgan together.

Expect them to be cuing up to the same music when the ACLU’s national legislative coordinator comes to Coeur d’Alene Wednesday. The topic: a Clinton administration proposal to make sure the FBI has the key to the encryption codes on your home computer for national security reasons.

While the ACLU almost always is cast as wide-eyed liberal, in this case “we are at odds with the Clinton administration and Democrats in Congress,” said Robert Kearney, the ACLU organizer visiting the Lake City Wednesday.

“Now coding in our computers prevents people from getting in,” Kearney said. “The Clinton administration wants to put a little hole in people’s encryption so the FBI can get in.”

That opening could allow the government access to counselors’ records, doctors’ notes and to commit all sorts of privacy invasions, he said. And this is the sort of issue that has Kearney believing he’s not boldly waltzing into hostile territory by coming to speak in a conservative stronghold like North Idaho.

“We are working with the Eagle Forum and Phyllis Schafley,” Kearney notes of the computer issue. “It’s a little bit of a surprise to me.”

It’s a reason for U.S. Rep. Helen Chenoweth to side with the ACLU. “It’s a bad idea for the FBI and the government to have a key to the computers of individuals,” Chenoweth said.

Instead “we very much need security devices against unreasonable search and seizure of the government,” she said.

Chenoweth said she often agrees with the ACLU on civil liberties and constitutional issues. But, “I don’t agree with them on issues involving discussion with regard to establishing a strong moral fiber” in the nation, she said.

Kearney acknowledges he always expects a mixed reaction.

“Nobody agrees with the ACLU 100 percent of the time,” he said. “We have a joke around here: You know somebody is a member of the ACLU if they agree with you 60 percent of the time.”

In Coeur d’Alene, “they will be loving me or hating me, and probably a little bit of both,” he said. But the ACLU wants to get out and show that the organization isn’t just a “tassel-loafer lobbyist, but people from all walks of life.”

This is becoming more important as the federal government transfers power back to the states and more civil liberties issues get decided locally, he said. But when Kearney moves beyond the FBI and computers in his presentation Wednesday, he may find less harmony.

That includes the ACLU’s opposition to school vouchers, support for abortion rights and desire to stop discrimination against gays and lesbians. None of this is so radical, he argues.

“It’s perfectly legal in 39 states, including Idaho, to fire someone because they are gay or lesbian or because someone thinks they are gay or lesbian,” he said, even if they are exemplary employees.

“I want the government out of my house, out of my wallet and out of my bedroom,” he said. And 70 percent of Americans support a change in such discrimination.

While he supports the fight against computer intrusion, the ACLU’s religious battles rankle Don Morgan, a North Idaho conservative political activist who once hosted a talk show on a local cable TV station.

“When they come from out of town and try to get the Ten Commandments off of the city hall lawn, they aren’t received well,” Morgan said. “Who are they protecting and who are they protecting them from?’

ACLU religious fights are highlighted here by an Idaho case going to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The group is suing a school district in Rexburg over prayer at graduation ceremonies.

But Kearney said there is broad support among conservative religious leaders for the ACLU’s efforts on the religious front, especially efforts to amend the constitution to mandate prayer in school. Those religious leaders know there are problems for the minority religion when the prayer is selected by the majority.

Susan K. Smith, a Coeur d’Alene resident and ACLU board member, appreciates that from her own experience. “In southeast Idaho, where I grew up, they were saying Mormon prayers, and if you are not a Mormon, you are an outcast.”

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: SPEAKING ENGAGEMENT ACLU National Legislative Coordinator Robert Kearney speaks at noon Wednesday at the Ironhorse Restaurant in Coeur d’Alene.