The RICO racket: now that RICO has been turned upside down, where is the ACLU? (hypocrisy in using the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act against abortion demonstrators when it was liberals who feared its useagainst anti-war protestors in the 1970s) From: National Review | Date: May 16, 1994| Author: Blakey, G. Robert | COPYRIGHT 1994 National Review, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan.  All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group.Copyright information

RICO was created in 1970 as a way of preventing organized crime groups as well as other business entities from using force to extract economic gain. When NOW sued anti-abortion protester Joseph Scheidler in 1986 under RICO, it turned the tables on freedom of speech and religion.

SHOULD RICO (the federal anti-racketeering statute) be applied beyond a John Gotti or a Charles Keating to a Mahatma Gandhi or a Martin Luther King? I thought not when, as counsel to Senator John L. McCle...