Howard Simon of the Florida American Civil Liberties Union has been caught telling fibs.  He told the “Florida Independent,” a web publication funded by the convicted felon George Soros, that the ACLU opposes a law which does not exist:

Howard Simon, the executive director of the ACLU of Florida, said in a statement that it is unsurprising that the DOJ has publicly expressed concerns over Florida’s law and is now attempting to intervene.  “No one, including Governor Scott, should be surprised that the Department of Justice has determined that key provisions of the Voter Suppression Act of 2011 can make it harder to register to vote and harder to vote,” Simon said. “The ACLU and others have said that to the Legislature, to the Secretary of State, to the U.S. Senate, to the Justice Department and to three different federal courts.”

The “Voter Suppression Act of 2011″ doesn’t exist.  Howard Simon made up that name.  There is no Florida bill named the “Voter Suppression Act of 2011.”  If Simon was being flip, and expected everyone to get the joke, then consider the actual law being challenged by the ACLU.  The law requires third party registration groups to turn in voter registration forms in a timely fashion so voters who sign them aren’t disenfranchised.  It also changes early voting dates, keeping the same number of aggregate hours.  This is the “voter suppression” that the Florida ACLU and the United States Department of Justice has seen fit to spend thousands of dollars attacking. 

Here’s today’s howler: “He received a Ph.D. degree from the University of Minnesota in legal and political philosophy and social ethics. Prior to his appointment as Executive Director of the Florida affiliate of the ACLU in 1997, Simon served as Executive Director of the Michigan affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union since 1974.  Prior to his work with the ACLU, he taught philosophy at the University of Minnesota and was a faculty member in the Department of Philosophy and Religion at DePauw University in Indiana.” 

I suppose it is good thing that one fewer “political philosophy and social ethics professor” who makes things up is no longer teaching college students.