“Liberty is meaningless where the right to utter one’s thoughts and opinions has ceased to exist,” Frederick Douglass said a few days after Boston thugs shut down a public forum at the Tremont Temple Baptist Church. In today’s parlance, the hecklers canceled the 19th-century public intellectual.
Mob violence is not the only means by which people seek to squelch the speech of those they disagree with. Another tactic is to release the names and contact information of donors to disfavored causes, also known as “doxing.” During the Civil Rights era, Alabama officials sought to force the NAACP to reveal its donor list.
Fortunately for the cause of free speech, the U.S. Supreme Court recognized the danger of uncovering the identity of anonymous donors and sided with the NAACP. It reinforced that 1958 decision in 2021 by striking down a California forced-disclosure law.
Despite these protections, attacks on free speech continue, and its defenders must be diligent. We continue to educate lawmakers on the importance of defending donor privacy. The partisan identity of those who undermine donor privacy does not matter to us. The Mackinac Center stands firmly on the side of donors, and we will continue to do so.
