Link. Hopefully someone will submit and have pubished a counterargument.
Taking the BOTTOM LINE final paragraph of that op-ed as a starting point:
Censorship can never win. It is the weak option deployed by tyrants and despots. It threatens our most cherished values. We must be better than that. For our children. And our nation.
How true is that?
We have a two-party political system. That censors what can be attained or not in government. The mainstream media focusus upon the range of distinction, one party against the other, and that is a narrow spectrum; mainstream media self-censoring.
And what is "win"? Short term, HUAC, House Unamerican Activities Committee, did win. Long term, Keynes was correct; long-term we're all dead.
American citizens during WW II were put into concentration camps. Throughout the meaningful length of the Pacific war, they were kept there. Right or wrong, that "censorship" of Japanese Americans won for as long as it was thought a needed policy, and then history can judge, afterwards.
Loyalty oaths, post WW II in the 50's prevailed. Winning in that sense. Sign one or have no job. That was in parallel to "Are you now or have you ever been a card-carrying member of the Communist Party?" Effective for as long the power structure felt necessary, later, okay, question it then.
Should Critical Race Theory be taught in Minnesota High Schools? If so, how? What else is an option to quelling it? The thought here is CRT has truth to it, and has been carried to extremes by some voices, and the young should be aided in being able to see the process of separating the intellectual wheat from the chaff.
That would aid the aim of Minnesota Constitution Art.XIII, Sect.1 which states :
Section 1. Uniform system of public schools.
The stability of a republican form of government depending mainly upon the intelligence of the people, it is the duty of the legislature to establish a general and uniform system of public schools. The legislature shall make such provisions by taxation or otherwise as will secure a thorough and efficient system of public schools throughout the state.
However, in parallel and again to aid critical analytical skill development, Replacement Theory should be taught, juxtaposing Unite the Right Charlottesville, young white male tiki-torch parades with the chant, "Jews will not Replace us" with an examination of the guiding aims of the UN, in terms of the universal declaration of human rights, which goes beyond our Bill of Rights; UN notions of political refugee vs economic refugee status, immigration policy vs. nationalism and sovereignty; and how a notion of Aryan exceptionalism worked out badly in fascist scapegoating war.
The history of white people, Europeans repeatedly at war with each other and on Crusade over borders and land, and after the reformation over belief systems nobody could touch or feel or prove but were thought by participants as worth killing over. Kings in England and France losing their heads, Cromwell too, with that but a top of the ladder reflection of the death at lower rungs - all that suggests "Aryan people" might have an actual exceptionalism, a greater ghost in their machine, than others.
The notion that nations could coexist short of war under "ground rules" with UN enforcement and scrutiny and guidance short of warfare, in a world where the last big one ended when one nation nuked another (us vs Japan, Japan nuked) is a notion that grew out of the two highly destructive Euro-centric Twentieth Century mega-wars, and the thought there might be a better way. All that should be a part of teaching Replacement Theory, where open immigration policy might diversify ethnicities in what then were predominantly, and nearly exclusively, white peoples. To an extent the U.S. was one such white nation, but with its history of slavery and racism to be faced, why not replace these clearly defective war-mongering Aryans; i.e., there is some rational argument to made favoring Replacement and it might be somebody's basis for doing what Replacement Theory complaints allege?
Even football which is hand-to-hand combat among volunteers has rules and penalties. Yet participants are allowed to do things which would be assault and battery if done off field, in the streets. Nations in dealing with one another arguably are best with rules and penalties, especially if that lessens the likelihood of nuclear frying of the planet. I.e., it is best if they are censored as to actions if not words.
Etc. The drift, teach disputed dogma and doctrines from an expansive perspective, to enhance critical thought capacities before turning the young loose on the economic and political "real world."
The thought at Crabgrass is that a most critical part of recent history that should unquestionably be taught in high schools to prepare the young for the real world is Operation Gladio. Web searching, here, here and here. No links beyond that, readers know of it or should really, really do the web research needed to learn.
It is a part of defining U.S. policy that shaped world history after the Second World War.
Back to the ACLU: They never could have opposed Operation Gladio while it was being most effective, short-term, because our federal government kept it secret.
Censorship does win, when operations of major magnitude are hidden behind National Security laws and constraints. You cannot fight and change what you don't know about, manipulative people know that, and secrecy law is the strongest form of censorship consistently winning in our U.S. of A.
Which is why we should not prematurely judge Trump's cache of secrete documents without the scenario playing out as to what and why he held onto stuff.
Trump is Trump. That is why we should think to attribute bad motivation without knowing more, but waiting and seeing how the dance ends. It is drama, actual not fictional, and the young should be schooled in a way that would encourage them to want to pay attention in a learned and not emotion-driven sloganeering way.
Back to that Minnesota Constitutional provision demanding uniform, effective public schooling statewide. It has been litigated mainly as to local or regional funding capacity discrepancies under the notion that the State's legislature has a duty to somehow balance funding. It is also administratively implemented by the State's DOE, where professionals who know what they are doing make universal curriculum policy decisions on a statewide basis.
What the Becker School Board and Education Minnesota might best do in litigation is hammer out a settlement where controversial fact and doctrine positions are mediated at the DOE level. Local control of schools, in particular curriculum policy, is madness. Standards for medical clinics are not set by their patients, but instead standards development is left to the professionals who are experienced and wise in knowing what's likely best. Problems exist with "trusting bureaucrats" but is that a greater threats than trusting the Becker School Board handful of persons?
Final wrap-up. Censorship prevailing. Anti-bullying law and school policies censor those who, violence free, can verbally make life miserable (to the extent of some suicide), for others. The bullies' freedom of speech gets censored. Don't say that is bad because it is best reasonable policy, even while clearly being speech censorship.
Final censorship observations: Defamation law crimps unbridled freedom of speech. So if you want to criticize somebody, pick empty pocket folks like the homeless with their tents on urban sidewalks, or those addicted to drugs, whereas Roy Cohn was who he was without newspapers ever saying much against him because he was known to be a litigious bastard who'd drag any reporter or editor over the rocks if critical, even if truthfully critical. The lesson being money and power can censor the speech of others who are less wealthy or powerful, censorship does succeed that way and always has, and that censorship lives now and into our foreseeable future.The fact is the ACLU cannot do jack about it, so highfaluting chest beating on the Strib op-ed page might not be the best thing to be teaching our young, or that segment of the young who read online Strib editorials.
ACLU highfaluting chest beating might even actually be counterproductive relative to a more measured presentation of beliefs and actualities by ACLU personnel.
The bottom line might be that the Becker School Board putting their rock at the base of the big hill and starting to push upward might not end bad if they and Education Minnesota explore settlement within already drawn litigation lines, and settlement negotiations move and work in an exemplary manner to where controversial school content can be rationally addressed and balanced. Teachers do occupy a position of trust where, for example sexual interactions with pupils are Verboten, and there might well be speech responsibilities that the DOE, the union, and school boards recognize and attempt to balance in light of that position of trust.