Overview
The ACLU was founded in 1920 by a committee including Roger Nash Baldwin,Organization
Leadership
The ACLU is led by a president and an executive director, Deborah N. Archer and Anthony Romero, respectively, in 2021. The president acts as chair of the ACLU's board of directors, leads fundraising, and facilitates policy-setting. The executive director manages the day-to-day operations of the organization. The board of directors consists of 80 persons, including representatives from each state affiliate, as well as at-large delegates. The organization has its headquarters inFunding
In the year ending March 31, 2014, the ACLU and the ACLU Foundation had a combined income from support and revenue of $100.4 million, originating from grants (50.0%), membership donations (25.4%), donated legal services (7.6%), bequests (16.2%), and revenue (0.9%).State affiliates
Most of the organization's workload is performed by its local affiliates. There is at least one affiliate organization in each state, as well as one in Washington, D.C., and in Puerto Rico. California has three affiliates. The affiliates operate autonomously from the national organization; each affiliate has its own staff, executive director, board of directors, and budget. Each affiliate consists of two non-profit corporations: aPositions
The ACLU's official position statements included the following policies: * Affirmative action – The ACLU supports affirmative action. * Birth control andSupport and opposition
The ACLU is supported by a variety of persons and organizations. There were over 1,000,000 members in 2017, and the ACLU annually receives thousands of grants from hundreds of charitable foundations. Allies of the ACLU in legal actions have included theEarly years
CLB era
The ACLU developed from the National Civil Liberties Bureau (CLB), co-founded in 1917 during World War I byFree speech era
In the 1920s, government censorship was commonplace. Magazines were routinely confiscated under the anti-obscenity Comstock laws; permits for labor rallies were often denied; and virtually all anti-war or anti-government literature was outlawed.Walker, pp. 51–52. Right-wing conservatives wielded vast amounts of power, and activists that promoted unionization, socialism, or government reform were often denounced as un-American or unpatriotic. In one typical instance in 1923, author Upton Sinclair was arrested for trying to read the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, First Amendment during an Industrial Workers of the World rally.Walker, p. 52. ACLU leadership was divided on how to challenge the civil rights violations. One faction, including Baldwin, Arthur Garfield Hays and Norman Thomas, believed that direct, militant action was the best path. Hays was the first of many successful attorneys that relinquished their private practices to work for the ACLU.Walker, p. 53. Another group, includingPublic schools
Scopes trial
When 1925 arrived five years after the ACLU was formed the organization had virtually no success to show for its efforts. That changed in 1925, when the ACLU persuaded John T. Scopes to defy Tennessee's anti-evolution law in ''Scopes Trial, The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes''. Clarence Darrow, a member of the ACLU National Committee, headed Scopes' legal team. The prosecution, led by William Jennings Bryan, contended that the Bible should be interpreted literally in teaching creationism in school. The ACLU lost the case and Scopes was fined $100. The Tennessee Supreme Court later upheld the law but overturned the conviction on a technicality. The Scopes trial was a phenomenal public relations success for the ACLU. The ACLU became well known across America, and the case led to the first endorsement of the ACLU by a major US newspaper. The ACLU continued to fight for the separation of church and state in schoolrooms, decade after decade, including the 1982 case ''McLean v. Arkansas'' and the 2005 case ''Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District''. Baldwin himself was involved in an important free speech victory of the 1920s, after he was arrested for attempting to speak at a rally of striking mill workers in New Jersey. Although the decision was limited to the state of New Jersey, the appeals court's judgement in 1928 declared that constitutional guarantees of free speech must be given "liberal and comprehensive construction", and it marked a major turning point in the civil rights movement, signaling the shift of judicial opinion in favor of civil rights. The most important ACLU case of the 1920s was ''Gitlow v. New York'', in which Benjamin Gitlow was arrested for violating a state law against inciting anarchy and violence, when he distributed literature promoting communism. Although the Supreme Court did not overturn Gitlow's conviction, it adopted the ACLU's stance (later termed the incorporation doctrine) that the First Amendment freedom of speech applied to state laws, as well as federal laws.''Pierce v. Society of Sisters''
After the First World War, many native-born Americans had a revival of concerns about assimilation of immigrants and worries about "foreign" values; they wanted public schools to teach children to be American. Numerous states drafted laws designed to use schools to promote a common American culture, and in 1922, the voters of Oregon passed the Oregon Compulsory Education Act. The law was primarily aimed at eliminating parochial schools, including Catholic schools. It was promoted by groups such as the Knights of Pythias, the Federation of Patriotic Societies, the Oregon Good Government League, the Orange Order, and the Ku Klux Klan. The Oregon Compulsory Education Act required almost all children in Oregon between eight and sixteen years of age to attend Public school (government funded), public school by 1926. Associate Director Roger Nash Baldwin, a personal friend of Luke E. Hart, the then–Supreme Advocate and future Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus, offered to join forces with the Knights to challenge the law. The Knights of Columbus pledged an immediate $10,000 to fight the law and any additional funds necessary to defeat it. The case became known as ''Pierce v. Society of Sisters'', a seminal United States Supreme Court decision that significantly expanded coverage of the Due Process Clause in the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, Fourteenth Amendment. In a unanimous decision, the court held that the act was unconstitutional and that parents, not the state, had the authority to educate children as they thought best. It upheld the religious freedom of parents to educate their children in religious schools.Early strategy
Leaders of the ACLU were divided on the best tactics to use to promote civil liberties. Felix Frankfurter felt that legislation was the best long-term solution because the Supreme Court could not (and in his opinion should not) mandate liberal interpretations of the Bill of Rights. But Walter Pollak,Free speech expansion
Censorship was commonplace in the early 20th century. State laws and city ordinances routinely outlawed speech deemed to be obscene or offensive, and prohibited meetings or literature that promoted unions or labor organization.Walker, p. 82. Starting in 1926, the ACLU began to expand its free speech activities to encompass censorship of art and literature. In that year, H. L. Mencken deliberately broke Boston law by distributing copies of his banned ''American Mercury'' magazine; the ACLU defended him and won an acquittal. The ACLU went on to win additional victories, including the landmark case ''United States v. One Book Called Ulysses'' in 1933, which reversed a ban by the Customs Department against the book ''Ulysses (novel), Ulysses'' by James Joyce.Walker, p. 86. The ACLU only achieved mixed results in the early years, and it was not until 1966 that the Supreme Court finally clarified the obscenity laws in the ''Roth v. United States'' and ''Memoirs v. Massachusetts'' cases. The Comstock laws banned distribution of sex education information, based on the premise that it was obscene and led to promiscuous behavior.Walker, p. 85. Mary Ware Dennett was fined $300 in 1928, for distributing a pamphlet containing sex education material. The ACLU, led by Morris Ernst, appealed her conviction and won a reversal, in which judge Learned Hand ruled that the pamphlet's main purpose was to "promote understanding". The success prompted the ACLU to broaden their freedom of speech efforts beyond labor and political speech, to encompass movies, press, radio and literature. The ACLU formed the National Committee on Freedom from Censorship in 1931 to coordinate this effort. By the early 1930s, censorship in the United States was diminishing. Two major victories in the 1930s cemented the ACLUs campaign to promote free speech. In ''Stromberg v. California'', decided in 1931, the Supreme Court sided with the ACLU and affirmed the right of a communist party member to salute a communist flag. The result was the first time the Supreme Court used the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, 14th amendment to subject states to the requirements of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, First Amendment. In ''Near v. Minnesota'', also decided in 1931, the Supreme Court ruled that states may not exercise prior restraint and prevent a newspaper from publishing, simply because the newspaper had a reputation for being scandalous.1930s
The late 1930s saw the emergence of a new era of tolerance in the United States.Walker, p. 112 National leaders hailed the United States Bill of Rights, Bill of Rights, particularly as it protected minorities, as the essence of democracy. The 1939 Supreme Court decision in ''Hague v. Committee for Industrial Organization'' affirmed the right of communists to promote their cause. Even conservative elements, such as the American Bar Association began to campaign for civil liberties, which were long considered to be the domain of left-leaning organizations. By 1940, the ACLU had achieved many of the goals it set in the 1920s, and many of its policies were the law of the land.Expansion
In 1929, after the Scopes and Dennett victories, Baldwin perceived that there was vast, untapped support for civil liberties in the United States. Baldwin proposed an expansion program for the ACLU, focusing on police brutality, Native American rights, African American rights, censorship in the arts, and international civil liberties. The board of directors approved Baldwin's expansion plan, except for the international efforts.Walker, p. 87. The ACLU played a major role in passing the 1932 Norris–La Guardia Act, a federal law which prohibited employers from preventing employees from joining unions, and stopped the practice of outlawing strikes, unions, and labor organizing activities with the use of injunctions. The ACLU also played a key role in initiating a nationwide effort to reduce misconduct (such as extracting false confessions) within police departments, by publishing the report ''Lawlessness in Law Enforcement'' in 1931, under the auspices of Herbert Hoover's Wickersham Commission. In 1934, the ACLU lobbied for the passage of the Indian Reorganization Act, which restored some autonomy to Native American tribes, and established penalties for kidnapping Native American children. Although the ACLU deferred to the NAACP for litigation promoting civil liberties for African Americans, the ACLU did engage in educational efforts, and published ''Black Justice'' in 1931, a report which documented institutional racism throughout the South, including lack of voting rights, segregation, and discrimination in the justice system.Walker, p. 88. Funded by the Garland Fund, the ACLU also participated in producing the influential Margold Report, which outlined a strategy to fight for civil rights for blacks.Walker, p. 89. The ACLU's plan was to demonstrate that the "separate but equal" policies governing the Southern discrimination were illegal because blacks were never, in fact, treated equally.Depression era and the New Deal
In 1932twelve years after the ACLU was foundedit had achieved significant success; the Supreme Court had embraced the free speech principles espoused by the ACLU, and the general public was becoming more supportive of civil rights in general. But the Great Depression brought new assaults on civil liberties; the year 1930 saw a large increase in the number of free speech prosecutions, a doubling of the number of lynchings, and all meetings of unemployed persons were banned in Philadelphia. The Franklin D. Roosevelt administration proposed the New Deal to combat the depression. ACLU leaders were of mixed opinions about the New Deal, since many felt that it represented an increase in government intervention into personal affairs, and because the National Recovery Administration suspended antitrust legislation.Walker, p. 96. Roosevelt was not personally interested in civil rights, but did appoint many civil libertarianism, civil libertarians to key positions, including Interior Secretary Harold L. Ickes, Harold Ickes, a member of the ACLU.Walker, p. 97 The economic policies of the New Deal leaders were often aligned with ACLU goals, but social goals were not. In particular, movies were subject to a barrage of local ordinances banning screenings that were deemed immoral or obscene.Walker, p. 100. Even public health films portraying pregnancy and birth were banned; as was ''Life (magazine), Life'' magazine's April 11, 1938, issue which included photos of the birth process. The ACLU fought these bans, but did not prevail.Walker, pp. 99–100. The Catholic Church attained increasing political influence in the 1930s, and used its influence to promote censorship of movies, and to discourage publication of birth control information. This conflict between the ACLU and the Catholic Church led to the resignation of the last Catholic priest from ACLU leadership in 1934; a Catholic priest would not be represented there again until the 1970s.Walker, p. 98. The ACLU took no official position on president Franklin Delano Roosevelt's 1937 Judicial Procedures Reform Bill of 1937, court-packing plan, which threatened to increase the number of Supreme Court justices, unless the Supreme Court reversed its course and began approving New Deal legislation.Walker, pp. 105–06. The Supreme Court responded by making a The switch in time that saved nine, major shift in policy, and no longer applied strict constitutional limits to government programs, and also began to take a more active role in protecting civil liberties. The first decision that marked the court's new direction was ''De Jonge v. Oregon'', in which a communist labor organizer was arrested for calling a meeting to discuss unionization.Walker, p. 106. The ACLU attorney Osmond Fraenkel, working with International Labor Defense, defended De Jonge in 1937, and won a major victory when the Supreme Court ruled that "peaceable assembly for lawful discussion cannot be made a crime." The De Jonge case marked the start of an era lasting for a dozen years, during which Roosevelt appointees (led by Hugo Black, William O. Douglas, and Frank Murphy) established a body of civil liberties law. In 1938, Justice Harlan F. Stone wrote the famous "footnote four" in ''United States v. Carolene Products Co.'' in which he suggested that state laws which impede civil liberties wouldhenceforthrequire compelling justification.Walker, p. 107. Senator Robert F. Wagner proposed the National Labor Relations Act in 1935, which empowered workers to unionize. Ironically, the ACLU, after 15 years of fighting for workers' rights, initially opposed the act (it later took no stand on the legislation) because some ACLU leaders feared the increased power the bill gave to the government.Wagner, p. 101. The newly formed National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) posed a dilemma for the ACLU, because in 1937 it issued an order toJehovah's Witnesses
The ACLU's support of defendants with unpopular, sometimes extreme, viewpoints have produced many landmark court cases and established new civil liberties. One such defendant was theCommunism and totalitarianism
The rise of totalitarian regimes in Germany, Russia, and other countries who rejected freedom of speech and association had a large impact on the civil liberties movement in the US; anti-Communist sentiment rose and civil liberties were curtailed.Walker, p. 115. The ACLU leadership was divided over whether or not to defend pro-Nazi speech in the United States; pro-labor elements within the ACLU were hostile towards Nazism and fascism, and objected when the ACLU defended Nazis.Walker, pp. 116–17. Several states passed laws outlawing the hate speech directed at ethnic groups.Walker, p. 117. The first person arrested under New Jersey's 1935 hate speech law was a Jehovah's Witness who was charged with disseminating anti-Catholic literature. The ACLU defended the Jehovah's Witnesses, and the charges were dropped. The ACLU proceeded to defend numerous pro-Nazi groups, defending their rights to free speech and free association. In the late 1930s, the ACLU allied itself with the Popular Front#United States, Popular Front, a coalition of liberal organizations coordinated by the Communist Party USA, United States Communist Party.Walker, p. 118. The ACLU benefited because affiliates from the Popular Front could often fight local civil rights battles much more effectively than the New York-based ACLU. The association with the Communist Party led to accusations that the ACLU was a "Communist front", particularly because Harry F. Ward was both chairman of the ACLU and chairman of the American League Against War and Fascism, a Communist organization.Walker, p. 119. The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) was created in 1938 to uncover sedition and treason within the United States.Walker, p. 120. When witnesses testified at its hearings, the ACLU was mentioned several times, leading the HUAC to mention the ACLU prominently in its 1939 report.Walker, p. 121. This damaged the ACLU's reputation severely, even though the report said that it could not "definitely state whether or not" the ACLU was a Communist organization. While the ACLU rushed to defend its image against allegations of being a Communist front, it also worked to protect witnesses who were being harassed by the HUAC.Walker, p. 122. The ACLU was one of the few organizations to protest (unsuccessfully) against passage of the Smith Act in 1940, which would later be used to imprison many persons who supported Communism.Walker, p. 123. The ACLU defended many persons who were prosecuted under the Smith Act, including labor leader Harry Bridges.Walker, p. 133. ACLU leadership was split on whether to purge its leadership of Communists. Norman Thomas, John Haynes Holmes, andMid-century
World War II
When World War II engulfed the United States, the Bill of Rights was enshrined as a hallowed document, and numerous organizations defended civil liberties.Walker, p. 140. Chicago and New York proclaimed "Civil Rights" weeks, and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt announced a national Bill of Rights day. Eleanor Roosevelt was the keynote speaker at the 1939 ACLU convention. In spite of this newfound respect for civil rights, Americans were becoming adamantly anti-communist, and believed that excluding communists from American society was an essential step to preserve democracy. Contrasted with World War I, there was relatively little violation of civil liberties during World War II. President Roosevelt was a strong supporter of civil liberties, butmore importantlythere were few anti-war activists during World War II.Walker, p. 135. The most significant exception was the internment of Japanese Americans.Japanese American internment
Two months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt authorized the creation of military "exclusion zones" with Executive Order 9066, paving the way for the detention of all West Coast Japanese Americans in inland camps. In addition to the non-citizen Issei (prohibited from naturalization as members of an "unassimilable" race), over two-thirds of those swept up were American-born citizens.Walker, p. 137. The ACLU immediately protested to Roosevelt, comparing the evacuations to Nazi concentration camps.Walker, p. 138. The ACLU was the only major organization to object to the internment plan, and their position was very unpopular, even within the organization. Not all ACLU leaders wanted to defend the Japanese Americans; Roosevelt loyalists such as Morris Ernst wanted to support Roosevelt's war effort, but pacifists such as Baldwin and Norman Thomas felt that Japanese Americans needed access to due process before they could be imprisoned.Walker, p. 139. In a March 20, 1942, letter to Roosevelt, Baldwin called on the administration to allow Japanese Americans to prove their loyalty at individual hearings, describing the constitutionality of the planned removal "open to grave question". His suggestions went nowhere, and opinions within the organization became increasingly divided as the Army began the "evacuation" of the West Coast. In May, the two factions, one pushing to fight the exclusion orders then being issued, the other advocating support for the President's policy of removing citizens whose "presence may endanger national security", brought their opposing resolutions to a vote before the board and the ACLU's national leaders. They decided not to challenge the eviction of Japanese American citizens, and on June 22 instructions were sent to West Coast branches not to support cases that argued the government had no constitutional right to do so. The ACLU offices on the West Coast had been more directly involved in addressing the tide of anti-Japanese prejudice from the start, as they were geographically closer to the issue, and were already working on cases challenging the exclusion by this time. The Seattle office, assisting in Gordon Hirabayashi's lawsuit, created an unaffiliated committee to continue the work the ACLU had started, while in Los Angeles, attorney A.L. Wirin continued to represent Ernest Kinzo Wakayama but without addressing the case's constitutional questions. Wirin would lose private clients because of his defense of Wakayama and other Japanese Americans; however, the San Francisco branch, led by Ernest Besig, refused to discontinue its support for Fred Korematsu, whose case had been taken on prior to the June 22 directive, and attorney Wayne M. Collins, Wayne Collins, with Besig's full support, centered his defense on the illegality of Korematsu's exclusion. The West Coast offices had wanted a test case to take to court, but had a difficult time finding a Japanese American who was both willing to violate the internment orders and able to meet the ACLU's desired criteria of a sympathetic, Americanized plaintiff. Of the 120,000 Japanese Americans affected by the order, only 12 disobeyed, and Korematsu, Hirabayashi, and two others were the only resisters whose cases eventually made it to the Supreme Court. ''Hirabayashi v. United States'' came before the Court in May 1943, and the justices upheld the government's right to exclude Japanese Americans from the West Coast; although it had earlier forced its local office in L.A. to stop aiding Hirabayashi, the ACLU donated $1,000 to the case (over a third of the legal team's total budget) and submitted an Amicus brief, ''amicus'' brief. Besig, dissatisfied with Osmond Fraenkel's tamer defense, filed an additional ''amicus'' brief that directly addressed Hirabayashi's constitutional rights. In the meantime, A.L. Wirin served as one of the attorneys in ''Yasui v. United States'' (decided the same day as the Hirabayashi case, and with the same results), but he kept his arguments within the perimeters established by the national office. The only case to receive a favorable ruling, ''ex parte Endo'', was also aided by two ''amicus'' briefs from the ACLU, one from the more conservative Fraenkel and another from the more putative Wayne Collins. ''Korematsu v. United States'' proved to be the most controversial of these cases, as Besig and Collins refused to bow to the national ACLU office's pressure to pursue the case without challenging the government's right to remove citizens from their homes. The ACLU board threatened to revoke the San Francisco branch's national affiliation, while Baldwin tried unsuccessfully to convince Collins to step down so he could replace him as lead attorney in the case. Eventually Collins agreed to present the case alongside Charles Antone Horsky, Charles Horsky, although their arguments before the Supreme Court remained based in the unconstitutionality of the exclusion order Korematsu had disobeyed. The case was decided in December 1944, when the Court once again upheld the government's right to relocate Japanese Americans, although Korematsu's, Hirabayashi's and Yasui's convictions were later overturned in ''coram nobis'' proceedings in the 1980s. Legal scholar Peter Irons later asserted that the national office of the ACLU's decision not to directly challenge the constitutionality of Executive Order 9066 had "crippled the effective presentation of these appeals to the Supreme Court". The national office of the ACLU was even more reluctant to defend anti-war protesters. A majority of the board passed a resolution in 1942 which declared the ACLU unwilling to defend anyone who interfered with the United States' war effort. Included in this group were the thousands of Nisei who Renunciation Act of 1944, renounced their US citizenship during the war but later regretted the decision and tried to revoke their applications for "repatriation". (A significant number of those slated to "go back" to Japan had never actually been to the country and were in fact being deported rather than repatriated.) Ernest Besig had in 1944 visited the Tule Lake Unit, World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument, Tule Lake Segregation Center, where the majority of these "renunciants" were concentrated, and subsequently enlisted Wayne Collins' help to file a lawsuit on their behalf, arguing the renunciations had been given under duress. The national organization prohibited local branches from representing the renunciants, forcing Collins to pursue the case on his own, although Besig and the Northern California office provided some support. During his 1944 visit to Tule Lake, Besig had also become aware of a hastily constructed stockade in which Japanese American internees were routinely being brutalized and held for months without due process. Besig was forbidden by the national ACLU office to intervene on behalf of the stockade prisoners or even to visit the Tule Lake camp without prior written approval from Baldwin. Unable to help directly, Besig turned to Wayne Collins for assistance. Collins, using the threat of habeas corpus suits managed to have the stockade closed down. A year later, after learning that the stockade had been reestablished, he returned to the camp and had it closed down for good.End of WWII in 1945
When the war ended in 1945, the ACLU was 25 years old, and had accumulated an impressive set of legal victories.Walker, p. 186. President Harry S. Truman sent a congratulatory telegram to the ACLU on the occasion of their 25th anniversary. American attitudes had changed since World War I, and dissent by minorities was tolerated with more willingness. The Bill of Rights was more respected, and minority rights were becoming more commonly championed. During their 1945 annual conference, the ACLU leaders composed a list of important civil rights issues to focus on in the future, and the list included racial discrimination and separation of church and state. The ACLU supported the African-American defendants in ''Shelley v. Kraemer'', when they tried to occupy a house they had purchased in a neighborhood which had racially restrictive housing covenants. The African-American purchasers won the case in 1945.Cold War era
Anti-Communist sentiment gripped the United States during theOrganizational change
In 1950, the ACLU board of directors asked executive director Baldwin to resign, feeling that he lacked the organizational skills to lead the 9,000 (and growing) member organization. Baldwin objected, but a majority of the board elected to remove him from the position, and he was replaced by Patrick Murphy Malin. Under Malin's guidance, membership tripled to 30,000 by 1955the start of a 24-year period of continual growth leading to 275,000 members in 1974.Walker, p. 207. Malin also presided over an expansion of local ACLU affiliates. The ACLU, which had been controlled by an elite of a few dozen New Yorkers, became more democratic in the 1950s. In 1951, the ACLU amended its bylaws to permit the local affiliates to participate directly in voting on ACLU policy decisions.Walker, p. 208. A bi-annual conference, open to the entire membership, was instituted in the same year, and in later decades it became a pulpit for activist members, who suggested new directions for the ACLU, including abortion rights, death penalty, and rights of the poor.McCarthy era
During the early 1950s, the ACLU continued to steer a moderate course through the Cold War. When singer Paul Robeson was denied a passport in 1950, even though he was not accused of any illegal acts, the ACLU chose to not defend him. The ACLU later reversed their stance, and supported William Worthy and Rockwell Kent in their passport confiscation cases, which resulted in legal victories in the late 1950s. In response to communist witch-hunts, many witnesses and employees chose to use the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, fifth amendment protection against self-incrimination to avoid divulging information about their political beliefs. Government agencies and private organizations, in response, established policies which inferred communist party membership for anyone who invoked the fifth amendment. The national ACLU was divided on whether to defend employees who had been fired merely for pleading the fifth amendment, but the New York affiliate successfully assisted teacher Harry Slochower in his Supreme Court case which reversed his termination. The fifth amendment issue became the catalyst for a watershed event in 1954, which finally resolved the ACLU's ambivalence by ousting the anti-communists from ACLU leadership. In 1953, the anti-communists, led by Norman Thomas and James Fly, proposed a set of resolutions that inferred guilt of persons that invoked the fifth amendment. These resolutions were the first that fell under the ACLU's new organizational rules permitting local affiliates to participate in the vote; the affiliates outvoted the national headquarters, and rejected the anti-communist resolutions. Anti-communist leaders refused to accept the results of the vote, and brought the issue up for discussion again at the 1954 bi-annual convention.Walker, p. 210. ACLU member Frank Porter Graham, Frank Graham, president of the University of North Carolina, attacked the anti-communists with a counter-proposal, which stated that the ACLU "stand[s] against guilt by association, judgment by accusation, the invasion of privacy of personal opinions and beliefs, and the confusion of dissent with disloyalty". The anti-communists continued to battle Graham's proposal, but were outnumbered by the affiliates. The anti-communists finally gave up and departed the board of directors in late 1954 and 1955, ending an eight-year reign of ambivalence within the ACLU leadership ranks. Thereafter, the ACLU proceeded with firmer resolve against Cold War anti-communist legislation.Walker, p. 211. The period from the 1940 resolution (and the purge of Elizabeth Flynn) to the 1954 resignation of the anti-communist leaders is considered by many to be an era in which the ACLU abandoned its core principles. McCarthyism declined in late 1954 after television journalist Edward R. Murrow and others publicly chastised McCarthy.Walker, p. 212. The controversies over the Bill of Rights that were generated by the Cold War ushered in a new era in American Civil liberties. In 1954, in ''Brown v. Board of Education'', the Supreme Court unanimously overturned state-sanctioned school segregation, and thereafter a flood of civil rights victories dominated the legal landscape. The Supreme Court handed the ACLU two key victories in 1957, in ''Watkins v. United States'' and ''Yates v. United States'', both of which undermined the Smith Act and marked the beginning of the end of communist party membership inquiries. In 1965, the Supreme Court produced some decisions, including ''Lamont v. Postmaster General'' (in which the plaintiff was Corliss Lamont, a former ACLU board member), which upheld fifth amendment protections and brought an end to restrictions on political activity.Walker, p. 246.1960s
The decade from 1954 to 1964 was the most successful period in the ACLU's history.Walker, p. 217 Membership rose from 30,000 to 80,000, and by 1965 it had affiliates in seventeen states. During the ACLU's bi-annual conference in Colorado in 1964, the Supreme Court issued rulings on eight cases in which the ACLU was involved; the ACLU prevailed on seven of the eight.Walker, p. 236. The ACLU played a role in Supreme Court decisions reducing censorship of literature and arts, protecting freedom of association, prohibiting racial segregation, excluding religion from public schools, and providing due process protection to criminal suspects. The ACLU's success arose from changing public attitudes; the American populace was more educated, more tolerant, and more willing to accept unorthodox behavior.Separation of church and state
Legal battles concerning the separation of church and state originated in laws dating to 1938 which required religious instruction in school, or provided state funding for religious schools.Walker, p. 219 The Catholic church was a leading proponent of such laws; and the primary opponents (the "separationists") were the ACLU, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and the American Jewish Congress. The ACLU led the challenge in the 1947 ''Everson v. Board of Education'' case, in which Justice Hugo Black wrote "[t]he First Amendment has erected a wall between church and state.... That wall must be kept high and impregnable." It was not clear that the Bill of Rights forbid state governments from supporting religious education, and strong legal arguments were made by religious proponents, arguing that the Supreme Court should not act as a "national school board", and that the Constitution did not govern social issues.Walker, p. 221. However, the ACLU and other advocates of church/state separation persuaded the Court to declare such activities unconstitutional. Historian Samuel Walker (historian), Samuel Walker writes that the ACLU's "greatest impact on American life" was its role in persuading the Supreme Court to "constitutionalize" so many public controversies. In 1948, the ACLU prevailed in the ''McCollum v. Board of Education'' case, which challenged public school religious classes taught by clergy paid for from private funds. The ACLU also won cases challenging schools in New Mexico which were taught by clergy and had crucifixes hanging in the classrooms.Walker, p. 222. In the 1960s, the ACLU, in response to member insistence, turned its attention to in-class promotion of religion.Walker, p. 223 In 1960, 42 percent of American schools included Bible reading. In 1962, the ACLU published a policy statement condemning in-school prayers, observation of religious holidays, and Bible reading. The Supreme Court concurred with the ACLU's position, when it prohibited New York's in-school prayers in the 1962 ''Engel v. Vitale'' decision. Religious factions across the country rebelled against the anti-prayer decisions, leading them to propose the School Prayer Amendment, School Prayer Constitutional Amendment, which declared in-school prayer legal.Walker, p. 225. The ACLU participated in a lobbying effort against the amendment, and the 1966 congressional vote on the amendment failed to obtain the required two-thirds majority. However, not all cases were victories; ACLU lost cases in 1949 and 1961 which challenged state laws requiring commercial businesses to close on Sunday, the Christian Sabbath. The Supreme Court has never overturned such laws, although some states subsequently revoked many of the laws under pressure from commercial interests.Freedom of expression
During the 1940s and 1950s, the ACLU continued its battle against censorship of art and literature.Walker, p. 227. In 1948, the New York affiliate of the ACLU received mixed results from the Supreme Court, winning the appeal of Carl Jacob Kunz, who was convicted for speaking without a police permit, but losing the appeal of Irving Feiner who was arrested to prevent a breach of the peace, based on his oration denouncing president Truman and the American Legion.Walker, p. 229. The ACLU lost the case of Joseph Beauharnais, who was arrested for group libel when he distributed literature impugning the character of African Americans.Walker, p. 230. Cities across America routinely banned movies because they were deemed to be "harmful", "offensive", or "immoral"censorship which was validated by the 1915 ''Mutual Film Corp. v. Industrial Commission of Ohio, Mutual v. Ohio'' Supreme Court decision which held movies to be mere commerce, undeserving of first amendment protection.Walker, p. 231. The film ''L'Amore (film), The Miracle'' was banned in New York in 1951, at the behest of the Catholic Church, but the ACLU supported the film's distributor in an appeal of the ban, and won a major victory in the 1952 decision ''Joseph Burstyn, Inc. v. Wilson''. The Catholic Church led efforts throughout the 1950s attempting to persuade local prosecutors to ban various books and movies, leading to conflict with the ACLU when the ACLU published it statement condemning the church's tactics.Walker, p. 232. Further legal actions by the ACLU successfully defended films such as ''M (1951 film), M'' and ''La Ronde (1950 film), la Ronde'', leading the eventual dismantling of movie censorship. Hollywood continued employing self-censorship with its own Production Code, but in 1956 the ACLU called on Hollywood to abolish the Code.Walker, p. 233. The ACLU defended beat generation artists, including Allen Ginsberg who was prosecuted for his poem "Howl (poem), Howl"; andin an unorthodox case the ACLU helped a coffee house regain its restaurant license which was revoked because its Beat customers were allegedly disturbing the peace and quiet of the neighborhood. The ACLU lost an Roth v. United States, important press censorship case when, in 1957, the Supreme Court upheld the obscenity conviction of publisher Samuel Roth for distributing adult magazines. As late as 1953, books such as ''Tropic of Cancer (novel), Tropic of Cancer'' and ''From Here to Eternity (novel), From Here to Eternity'' were still banned. But public standards rapidly became more liberal though the 1960s, and obscenity was notoriously difficult to define, so by 1971 prosecutions for obscenity had halted.Racial discrimination
A major aspect of civil liberties progress after World War II was the undoing centuries of racism in federal, state, and local governments an effort generally associated with the civil rights movement.Walker, p. 238. Several civil liberties organizations worked together for progress, including thePolice misconduct
The ACLU regularly tackled police misconduct issues, starting with the 1932 case ''Powell v. Alabama'' (right to an attorney), and including 1942's ''Betts v. Brady'' (right to an attorney), and 1951's ''Rochin v. California'' (involuntary stomach pumping). In the late 1940s, several ACLU local affiliates established permanent committees to address policing issues. During the 1950s and 1960s, the ACLU was responsible for substantially advancing the legal protections against police misconduct. The Philadelphia affiliate was responsible for causing the City of Philadelphia, in 1958, to create the nation's first civilian police review board. In 1959, the Illinois affiliate published the first report in the nation, ''Secret Detention by the Chicago Police'', which documented unlawful detention by police. Some of the most well known ACLU successes came in the 1960s, when the ACLU prevailed in a string of cases limiting the power of police to gather evidence; in 1961's ''Mapp v. Ohio'', the Supreme court required states to obtain a warrant before searching a person's home. The ''Gideon v. Wainwright'' decision in 1963 provided legal representation to indigents. In 1964, the ACLU persuaded the Court, in ''Escobedo v. Illinois'', to permit suspects to have an attorney present during questioning. And, in 1966, ''Miranda v. Arizona'' federal decision required police to notify suspects of their constitutional rights, which was later extended to Minor (law), juveniles in the following year's ''in re Gault'' (1967) federal ruling. Although many law enforcement officials criticized the ACLU for expanding the rights of suspects, police officers also used the services of the ACLU. For example, when the ACLU represented New York City policemen in their lawsuit which objected to searches of their workplace lockers. In the late 1960s, civilian review boards in New York City and Philadelphia were abolished, over the ACLU's objection.Civil liberties revolution of the 1960s
The 1960s was a tumultuous era in the United States, and public interest in civil liberties underwent an explosive growth.Walker, pp. 257, 261–62. Civil liberties actions in the 1960s were often led by young people, and often employed tactics such as sit ins and marches. Protests were often peaceful, but sometimes employed militant tactics. The ACLU played a central role in all major civil liberties debates of the 1960s, including new fields such as gay rights, prisoner's rights, abortion, rights of the poor, and the death penalty. Membership in the ACLU increased from 52,000 at the beginning of the decade, to 104,000 in 1970.Walker, p. 262 In 1960, there were affiliates in seven states, and by 1974 there were affiliates in 46 states. During the 1960s, the ACLU underwent a major transformation tactics; it shifted emphasis from legal appeals (generally involving amicus briefs submitted to the Supreme Court) to direct representation of defendants when they were initially arrested. At the same time, the ACLU transformed its style from "disengaged and elitist" to "emotionally engaged". The ACLU published a breakthrough document in 1963, titled ''How Americans Protest'', which was borne of frustration with the slow progress in battling racism, and which endorsed aggressive, even militant protest techniques. African-American protests in the South accelerated in the early 1960s, and the ACLU assisted at every step. After four African-American college students Greensboro sit-ins, staged a sit-in in a segregated North Carolina department store, the sit-in movement gained momentum across the United States. During 1960–61, the ACLU defended black students arrested for demonstrating in North Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana. The ACLU also provided legal help for the Freedom Riders, Freedom Rides in 1961, the Civil rights movement#Integration of Mississippi universities, 1956–1965, integration of the University of Mississippi, the Birmingham campaign in 1963, and the 1964 Freedom Summer.Walker, p. 263. The NAACP was responsible for managing most sit-in related cases that made it to the Supreme Court, winning nearly every decision.Walker, p. 264. But it fell to the ACLU and other legal volunteer efforts to provide legal representation to hundreds of protestorswhite and blackwho were arrested while protesting in the South. The ACLU joined with other civil liberties groups to form the Lawyers Constitutional Defense Committee (LCDC) which subsequently provided legal representation to many of the protesters. The ACLU provided the majority of the funding for the LCDC. In 1964, the ACLU opened up a major office in Atlanta, Georgia, dedicated to serving Southern issues. Much of the ACLU's progress in the South was due to Charles Morgan Jr., the charismatic leader of the Atlanta office. Morgan was responsible for desegregating juries (''Whitus v. Georgia''), desegregating prisons (''Lee v. Washington''), and Disenfranchisement after the Reconstruction era, reforming election laws. In 1966 the southern office successfully represented African-American congressman Julian Bond in ''Bond v. Floyd'', after the Georgia House of Representatives refused to admit Bond into the legislature on the basis that he was an admitted pacifist opposed to the ongoing Vietnam War. Another widely publicized case defended by Morgan was that of Army doctor Howard Levy, who was convicted of refusing to train Green Berets. Despite raising the defense that the Green Berets were committing war crimes in Vietnam, Levy lost on appeal in ''Parker v. Levy'', 417 US 733 (1974). In 1969, the ACLU won a major victory for free speech, when it defended Dick Gregory after he was arrested for peacefully protesting against the mayor of Chicago. The court ruled in ''Gregory v. Chicago'' that a speaker cannot be arrested for disturbing the peace when the hostility is initiated by someone in the audience, as that would amount to a "heckler's veto".Vietnam War
The ACLU was at the center of several legal aspects of the Vietnam war: defending draft resisters, challenging the constitutionality of the war, the Watergate scandal, potential impeachment of Richard Nixon, and the use of national security concerns to preemptively Censorship, censor newspapers. David J. Miller was the first person prosecuted for burning his draft card. The New York affiliate of the ACLU appealed his 1965 conviction (367 F.2d 72: ''United States of America v. David J. Miller'', 1966), but the Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal. Two years later, the Massachusetts affiliate took the card-burning case of David O'Brien to the Supreme Court, arguing that the act of burning was a form of symbolic speech, but the Supreme Court upheld the conviction in ''United States v. O'Brien'', 391 US 367 (1968).Walker, p. 280. Thirteen-year-old Junior High student Mary Tinker wore a black armband to school in 1965 to object to the war, and was suspended from school. The ACLU appealed her case to the Supreme Court and won a victory in ''Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District''. This critical case established that the government may not establish "enclaves" such as schools or prisons where all rights are forfeit. The ACLU defended Sydney Street, who was arrested for burning an American flag to protest the reported assassination of civil rights leader James Meredith. In the ''Street v. New York'' decision, the court agreed with the ACLU that encouraging the country to abandon one of its national symbols was constitutionally protected form of expression. The ACLU successfully defended Paul Cohen, who was arrested for wearing a jacket with the words "fuck the draft" on its back, while he walked through the Los Angeles courthouse. The Supreme Court, in ''Cohen v. California'', held that the vulgarity of the wording was essential to convey the intensity of the message.Walker, p. 281. Non-war related free speech rights were also advanced during the Vietnam war era; in 1969, the ACLU defended a Ku Klux Klan member who advocated long-term violence against the government, and the Supreme Court concurred with the ACLU's argument in the landmark decision ''Brandenburg v. Ohio'', which held that only speech which advocated ''imminent'' violence could be outlawed. A major crisis gripped the ACLU in 1968 when a debate erupted over whether to defend Benjamin Spock and the Boston Five against federal charges that they encouraged draftees to avoid the draft. The ACLU board was deeply split over whether to defend the activists; half the board harbored anti-war sentiments, and felt that the ACLU should lend its resources to the cause of the Boston Five. The other half of the board believed that civil liberties were not at stake, and the ACLU would be taking a political stance. Behind the debate was the longstanding ACLU tradition that it was politically impartial, and provided legal advice without regard to the political views of the defendants. The board finally agreed to a compromise solution that permitted the ACLU to defend the anti-war activists, without endorsing the activist's political views. Some critics of the ACLU suggest that the ACLU became a partisan political organization following the Spock case.Walker, pp. 284–85. After the Kent State shootings in 1970, ACLU leaders took another step towards politics by passing a resolution condemning the Vietnam War. The resolution was based in a variety of legal arguments, including civil liberties violations and a claim that the war was illegal. Also in 1968, the ACLU held an internal symposium to discuss its dual roles: providing "direct" legal support (defense for accused in their initial trial, benefiting only the individual defendant), and appellate support (providing amicus briefs during the appeal process, to establish widespread legal precedent).Walker, p. 285. Historically, the ACLU was known for its appellate work which led to landmark Supreme Court decisions, but by 1968, 90% of the ACLU's legal activities involved direct representation. The symposium concluded that both roles were valid for the ACLU.1970s and 1980s
Watergate era
The ACLU supported ''The New York Times'' in its 1971 suit against the government, requesting permission to publish the Pentagon Papers. The court upheld the ''Times'' and ACLU in the ''New York Times Co. v. United States'' ruling, which held that the government could not preemptively prohibit the publication of classified information and had to wait until after it was published to take action. On September 30, 1973, the ACLU became first national organization to publicly call for the impeachment and removal from office of President Richard Nixon. Six civil liberties violations were cited as grounds: "specific proved violations of the rights of political dissent; usurpation of Congressional war‐making powers; establishment of a personal secret police which committed crimes; attempted interference in the trial of Daniel Ellsberg; distortion of the system of justice and perversion of other Federal agencies". One month later, after the House of Representatives began an Impeachment process against Richard Nixon, impeachment inquiry against him, the organization released a 56‐page handbook detailing "17 things citizens could do to bring about the impeachment of President Nixon". This resolution, when placed beside the earlier resolution opposing the Vietnam war, convinced many ACLU critics, particularly conservatives, that the organization had transformed into a liberal political organization.Enclaves and new civil liberties
The decade from 1965 to 1975 saw an expansion of the field of civil liberties. Administratively, the ACLU responded by appointing Aryeh Neier to take over from Pemberton as executive director in 1970. Neier embarked on an ambitious program to expand the ACLU; he created the ACLU Foundation to raise funds, and he created several new programs to focus the ACLU's legal efforts. By 1974, ACLU membership had reached 275,000. During those years, the ACLU worked to expand legal rights in three directions: new rights for persons within government-run "enclaves", new rights for members of what it called "victim groups", and privacy rights for citizens in general. At the same time, the organization grew substantially. The ACLU helped develop the field of constitutional law that governs "enclaves", which are groups of persons that live in conditions under government control. Enclaves include mental hospital patients, members of the military, and prisoners, and students (while at school). The term enclave originated with Supreme Court justice Abe Fortas's use of the phrase "schools may not be enclaves of totalitarianism" in the ''Tinker v. Des Moines'' decision. The ACLU initiated the legal field of student's rights with the ''Tinker v. Des Moines'' case, and expanded it with cases such as ''Goss v. Lopez'' which required schools to provide students an opportunity to appeal suspensions. As early as 1945, the ACLU had taken a stand to protect the rights of the mentally ill, when it drafted a model statute governing mental commitments.Walker, p. 309. In the 1960s, the ACLU opposed involuntary commitments, unless it could be demonstrated that the person was a danger to himself or the community. In the landmark 1975 ''O'Connor v. Donaldson'' decision the ACLU represented a non-violent mental health patient who had been confined against his will for 15 years, and persuaded the Supreme Court to rule such involuntary confinements illegal. The ACLU has also defended the rights of individuals with mental illness who are not dangerous, but who create disturbances. The New York chapter of the ACLU defended Billie Boggs, a woman with mental illness who exposed herself and defecated and urinated in public. Prior to 1960, prisoners had virtually no recourse to the court system, because courts considered prisoners to have no civil rights. That changed in the late 1950s, when the ACLU began representing prisoners that were subject to police brutality, or deprived of religious reading material.Walker, p. 310. In 1968, the ACLU successfully sued to desegregate the Alabama prison system; and in 1969, the New York affiliate adopted a project to represent prisoners in New York prisons. Private attorney Phil Hirschkop discovered degrading conditions in Virginia prisons following the Virginia State Penitentiary strike, and won an important victory in 1971's ''Landman v. Royster'' which prohibited Virginia from treating prisoners in inhumane ways. In 1972, the ACLU consolidated several prison rights efforts across the nation and created the National Prison Project. The ACLU's efforts led to landmark cases such as ''Ruiz v. Estelle'' (requiring reform of the Texas prison system) and in 1996 United States Congress, US Congress enacted the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA) which codified prisoners' rights.Victim groups
The ACLU, during the 1960s and 1970s, expanded its scope to include what it referred to as "victim groups", namely women, the poor, and homosexuals. Heeding the call of female members, the ACLU endorsed the Equal Rights Amendment in 1970 and created the Women's Rights Project in 1971. The Women's Rights Project dominated the legal field, handling more than twice as many cases as the National Organization for Women, including breakthrough cases such as ''Reed v. Reed'', ''Frontiero v. Richardson'', and '' Taylor v. Louisiana''. ACLU leader Harriet Pilpel raised the issue of the rights of homosexuals in 1964, and two years later the ACLU formally endorsed LGBT rights in the United States, gay rights. In 1972, ACLU cooperating attorneys in Oregon filed the first federal civil rights case involving a claim of unconstitutional discrimination against a gay or lesbian public school teacher. The US District Court held that a state statute that authorized school districts to fire teachers for "immorality" was unconstitutionally vague, and awarded monetary damages to the teacher. The court refused to reinstate the teacher, and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed that refusal by a 2 to 1 vote. ''Burton v. Cascade School District'', 353 F. Supp. 254 (D. Or. 1972), aff'd 512 F.2d 850 (1975). In 1973, the ACLU created the Sexual Privacy Project (later the Gay and Lesbian Rights Project) which combated discrimination against homosexuals. This support continued into the 2000s. For example, after then-Senator Larry Craig was arrested for soliciting sex in a public restroom in 2007, the ACLU wrote an amicus brief for Craig, saying that sex between consenting adults in public places was protected under privacy rights. Rights of the poor was another area that was expanded by the ACLU. In 1966 and again in 1968, activists within the ACLU encouraged the organization to adopt a policy overhauling the welfare system, and guaranteeing low-income families a baseline income; but the ACLU board did not approve the proposals.Walker, p. 313. However, the ACLU played a key role in the 1968 ''King v. Smith'' decision, where the Supreme Court ruled that welfare benefits for children could not be denied by a state simply because the mother cohabited with a boyfriend.Reproductive Freedom Project
The Reproductive Freedom Project was founded by the ACLU in 1974 to defend individuals who are obstructed by the government in cases involving access to abortions, birth control, or sexual education. According to its mission statement, the project works to provide access to any and all reproductive health care for individuals. The project also opposes abstinence-only sex education, arguing that it promotes an unwillingness to use contraceptives. In 1980, the Project filed ''Poe v. Lynchburg Training School & Hospital'' which attempted to overturn ''Buck v. Bell'', the 1927 US Supreme Court decision which had allowed the Commonwealth of Virginia to legally sterilize persons it deemed to be mentally defective without their permission. Though the Court did not overturn ''Buck v.Bell'', in 1985 the state agreed to provide counseling and medical treatment to the survivors among the 7,200 to 8,300 people sterilized between 1927 and 1979. In 1977, the ACLU took part in and litigated ''Walker v. Pierce'', the United States courts of appeals, federal circuit court case that led to federal regulations to prevent Medicaid patients from being sterilized without their knowledge or consent. In 1981–1990, the Project litigated ''Hodgson v. Minnesota'', which resulted in the Supreme Court of the United States, Supreme Court overturning a state law requiring both parents to be notified before a minor could legally have an abortion. In the 1990s, the Project provided legal assistance and resource kits to those who were being challenged for educating about sexuality and HIV/AIDS, AIDS. In 1995, the Project filed an Amicus curiae, amicus brief in ''Curtis v. School Committee of Falmouth'', which allowed for the distribution of condoms in a public school. The Reproductive Freedom Project focuses on three ideas: (1) to "reverse the shortage of trained abortion providers throughout the country" (2) to "block state and federal welfare "reform" proposals that cut off benefits for children who are born to women already receiving welfare, unmarried women, or teenagers" and (3) to "stop the elimination of vital reproductive health services as a result of hospital mergers and health care networks". The Project proposes to achieve these goals through legal action and litigation.Privacy
The Privacy laws of the United States, right to privacy is not explicitly identified in the United States Constitution, US Constitution, but the ACLU led the charge to establish such rights in the indecisive ''Poe v. Ullman'' (1961) case, which addressed a state statute outlawing contraception. The issue arose again in ''Griswold v. Connecticut'' (1965), and this time the Supreme Court adopted the ACLU's position, and formally declared a right to privacy. The New York affiliate of the ACLU pushed to eliminate Opposition to the legalization of abortion, anti-abortion laws starting in 1964, a year before ''Griswold'' was decided, and in 1967 the ACLU itself formally adopted the Support for the legalization of abortion, right to abortion as a policy. The ACLU led the defense in ''United States v. Vuitch'' (1971) which expanded the right of physicians to determine when abortions were necessary. These efforts culminated in one of the most controversial Supreme Court decisions, ''Allegations of bias
In the early 1970s, conservatives and Libertarianism, libertarians began to criticize the ACLU for being too political and too liberal. Legal scholar Joseph W. Bishop wrote that the ACLU's trend to partisanship started with its defense of Spock's anti-war protests. Critics also blamed the ACLU for encouraging the Supreme Court to embrace judicial activism.Walker, p. 318. Critics claimed that the ACLU's support of controversial decisions like ''The Skokie case
In 1977, the National Socialist Party of America, led by Frank Collin, applied to the town of Skokie, Illinois, for a permit to hold a demonstration in the town park. Skokie at the time had a majority population of Jews, totaling 40,000 of 70,000 citizens, some of whom were survivors of Nazi concentration camps. Skokie refused to grant the NSPA a permit, passed ordinances against hate speech and military wear, in addition to requiring an insurance bond. Skokie's Village Council ordered village attorney, Harvey Schwartz, to seek an sought an injunction to stop the demonstration. The ACLU assisted Collin and appealed to federal court, eventually prevailing in National Socialist Party of America v. Village of Skokie, NSPA v. Village of Skokie The Skokie case was heavily publicized across America, partially because Jewish groups such as the Jewish Defense League and Anti Defamation League strenuously objected to the demonstration, leading many members of the ACLU to cancel their memberships. The Illinois affiliate of the ACLU lost about 25% of its membership and nearly one-third of its budget. The financial strain from the controversy led to layoffs at local chapters. After the membership crisis died down, the ACLU sent out a fund-raising appeal which explained their rationale for the Skokie case, and raised over $500,000 ($ in dollars).Reagan era
The First inauguration of Ronald Reagan, inauguration of Ronald Reagan as president in 1981, ushered in an Presidency of Ronald Reagan, eight-year period of conservative leadership in the US government. Under Ronald Reagan, Reagan's leadership, the government pushed a conservative social agenda. Fifty years after the Scopes trial, the ACLU found itself fighting another classroom case, the Arkansas 1981 creationism statute, which required schools to teach the biblical account of creation as a scientific alternative to evolution. The ACLU won the case in the ''McLean v. Arkansas'' decision. In 1982, the ACLU became involved in a case involving the distribution of child pornography (''New York v. Ferber''). In an amicus brief, the ACLU argued that child pornography that violates the three prong obscenity test should be outlawed, but that the law in question was overly restrictive because it outlawed artistic displays and otherwise non-obscene material. The court did not adopt the ACLU's position. During the 1988 United States presidential election, 1988 presidential election, Vice President George H. W. Bush noted that his opponent Governor of Massachusetts, Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis had described himself as a "card-carrying member of the ACLU" and used that as evidence that Dukakis was "a strong, passionate liberal" and "out of the mainstream". The phrase subsequently was used by the organization in an advertising campaign.1990s
In 1990, the ACLU defended Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North, whose conviction was tainted by coerced testimonya violation of his Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, fifth amendment rightsduring the Iran–Contra affair, where Oliver North was involved in illegal weapons sales to Iran in order to illegally fund the Contras, Contra guerillas. In 1997, ruling unanimously in the case of ''Reno v. American Civil Liberties Union'', the Supreme Court voided the anti-indecency provisions of the Communications Decency Act (the CDA), finding they violated the freedom of speech provisions of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, First Amendment. In their decision, the Supreme Court held that the CDA's "use of the undefined terms 'indecent' and 'patently offensive' will provoke uncertainty among speakers about how the two standards relate to each other and just what they mean." In 2000, Marvin Johnson, a legislative counsel for the ACLU, stated that proposed anti-Spamming, spam legislation infringed on free speech by denying anonymity and by forcing spam to be labeled as such, "Standardized labeling is compelled speech." He also stated, "It's relatively simple to click and delete." The debate found the ACLU joining with the Direct Marketing Association (USA), Direct Marketing Association and the Center for Democracy and Technology in 2000 in criticizing a bipartisan bill in the United States House of Representatives, House of Representatives. As early as 1997, the ACLU had taken a strong position that nearly all spam legislation was improper, although it has supported "opt-out" requirements in some cases. The ACLU opposed the 2003 CAN-SPAM Act of 2003, CAN-SPAM act suggesting that it could have a Chilling effect (term), chilling effect on speech in cyberspace. It has been criticized for this position. In November 2000, 15 African-American residents of Hearne, Texas, were indicted on drug charges after being arrested in a series of "drug sweeps". The ACLU filed a class-action lawsuit, ''Kelly v. Paschall'', on their behalf, alleging that the arrests were unlawful. The ACLU contended that 15 percent of Hearne's male African-American population aged 18 to 34 were arrested based only on the "uncorroborated word of a single unreliable confidential informant coerced by police to make cases". On May 11, 2005, the ACLU and Robertson County, Texas, Robertson County announced a confidential settlement of the lawsuit, an outcome which "both sides stated that they were satisfied with". The District Attorney dismissed the charges against the plaintiffs of the suit. The 2009 film ''American Violet'' depicts this case. In 2000, the ACLU's Massachusetts affiliate represented the North American Man Boy Love Association (NAMBLA), on first amendment grounds, in the ''Curley v. NAMBLA'' wrongful death civil suit. The organization was sued because a man who raped and murdered a child had visited the NAMBLA website.ACLU21st century
Free speech
In 2006, the ACLU of Washington State joined with a pro-gun rights organization, the Second Amendment Foundation, and prevailed in a lawsuit against the North Central Regional Library District (NCRL) in Washington for its policy of refusing to disable restrictions upon an adult patron's request. Library patrons attempting to access pro-gun web sites were blocked, and the library refused to remove the blocks. In 2012, the ACLU sued the same library system for refusing to disable temporarily, at the request of an adult patron, Internet filters which blocked access to Google Images. In 2006, the ACLU challenged a Missouri law that prohibited picketing outside of veterans' funerals. The suit was filed in support of the Westboro Baptist Church and Shirley Phelps-Roper, who were threatened with arrest. The Westboro Baptist Church is well known for their picket signs that contain messages such as, "God Hates Fags", "Thank God for Dead Soldiers", and "Thank God for 9/11". The ACLU issued a statement calling the legislation a "law that infringes on Shirley Phelps-Roper's rights to religious liberty and free speech". The ACLU prevailed in the lawsuit. The ACLU argued in an amicus brief to the Supreme Court that a decision of the constitutionality of Massachusetts law required the consideration of additional evidence because lower courts have undervalued the right to engage in sidewalk counseling. The law prohibited sidewalk counselors from approaching women outside abortion facilities and offering them alternatives to abortion but allowed escorts to speak with them and accompany them into the building. In overturning the law in ''McCullen v. Coakley'', the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that it violated the counselors' freedom of speech and that it was viewpoint discrimination. In 2009, the ACLU filed an amicus brief in '' Citizens United v. FEC'', arguing that the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 violated the First Amendment right to free speech by curtailing political speech. This stance on the landmark ''Citizens United'' case caused considerable disagreement within the organization, resulting in a discussion about its future stance during a quarterly board meeting in 2010. On March 27, 2012, the ACLU reaffirmed its stance in support of the Supreme Court's ''Citizens United'' ruling, at the same time voicing support for expanded public financing of election campaigns and stating the organization would firmly oppose any future constitutional amendment limiting free speech. In 2012, the ACLU filed suit on behalf of the Ku Klux Klan of Georgia, claiming that the KKK was unfairly rejected from the state's "Adopt-a-Highway" program. The ACLU prevailed in the lawsuit.Accusations of lost impartiality
Beginning in 2017, some individuals claimed the ACLU was reducing its support of unpopular free speech (specifically by declining to defend speech made by Conservatism in the United States, conservatives) in favor of identity politics, political correctness, and progressivism. Former ACLU director Ira Glasser stated that "the ACLU might not take the National Socialist Party of America v. Village of Skokie, Skokie case today." One basis of these allegations was a 2017 statement made from the ACLU president to a reporter after the death of a counter-protester during the Unite the Right rally, 2017 Unite the Right rally in Virginia, where Romero told a reporter that the ACLU would no longer support legal cases of activists that wish to carry guns at their protests. Another basis for these claims was an internal ACLU memo dated June 2018, discussing factors to evaluate when deciding whether or not to take a case. The memo listed several factors to consider, including "the extent to which the speech may assist in advancing the goals of white supremacists or others whose views are contrary to our values". Some analysts viewed this as a retreat from ACLU's historically strong support of first amendment rights, regardless of whether minorities were negatively impacted by the speech, citing the ACLU's past support for certain KKK and Nazi legal cases. The memo's authors stated that the memo did not define a change in official ACLU policy, but was simply intended as a guideline to assist ACLU affiliates in deciding which cases to take. In 2021, the ACLU filed a brief siding with a school district that had a policy of using preferred pronouns for transgender students. Some analysts felt this was a retreat from the ACLU's historical defense of the first amendment, because the ACLU was opposing the teachers who were disciplined for refusing to use the preferred pronouns. In 2021, the ACLU responded to the criticisms by releasing a statement denying that they are reducing their support for unpopular First Amendment causes, and listing 27 cases from the years 2017 to 2021 where the ACLU supported a party holding an unpopular or repugnant viewpoint. The cases included one which challenged college restrictions on hate speech; a case defending a Catholic school's right to discriminate in hiring; and a case which defended antisemitic protesters who marched outside a synagogue.LGBTQ issues
In March 2004, the ACLU, along with Lambda Legal and the National Center for Lesbian Rights, sued the state of California on behalf of six same-sex couples who were denied marriage licenses. That case, ''Woo v. Lockyer'', was eventually consolidated into ''In re Marriage Cases'', the California Supreme Court case which led to same-sex marriage being available in that state from June 16, 2008, until California Proposition 8 (2008), Proposition 8 was passed on November 4, 2008. The ACLU, Lambda Legal and the National Center for Lesbian Rights then challenged California Proposition 8 (2008), Proposition 8 and won. In 2010, the ACLU of Illinois was inducted into the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame as a Friend of the Community. In 2011, the ACLU started its Don't Filter Me project, counteringSecond amendment
In light of the Supreme Court's ''District of Columbia v. Heller, Heller'' decision recognizing that the Constitution protects an individual right to bear arms, ACLU of Nevada took a position of supporting "the individual's right to bear arms subject to constitutionally permissible regulations" and pledged to "defend this right as it defends other constitutional rights". In 2021, the ACLU supported the position that the Second Amendment was originally written to ensure that Southern states could use militias to suppress slave uprisings, and that anti-Blackness ensured its inclusion in the Bill of Rights.Anti-terrorism issues
After the September 11 attacks, the federal government instituted a broad range of new measures to combat terrorism, including the passage of the Patriot Act. The ACLU challenged many of the measures, claiming that they violated rights regarding due process, privacy, illegal searches, and cruel and unusual punishment. An ACLU policy statement states: During the ensuing debate regarding the proper balance of civil liberties and security, the membership of the ACLU increased by 20%, bringing the group's total enrollment to 330,000. The growth continued, and by August 2008 ACLU membership was greater than 500,000. It remained at that level through 2011. The ACLU has been a vocal opponent of the USA PATRIOT Act of 2001, the Domestic Security Enhancement Act of 2003, PATRIOT 2 Act of 2003, and associated legislation made in response to the threat of domestic terrorism. In response to a requirement of the USA PATRIOT Act, the ACLU withdrew from the Combined Federal Campaign charity drive.ACLUTrump administration
Following Donald Trump presidential campaign, 2016, Donald Trump's election as president on November 8, 2016, the ACLU responded on Twitter saying: "Should President-elect Donald Trump attempt to implement his unconstitutional campaign promises, we'll see him in court." On January 27, 2017, President Trump signed an Executive Order 13769, executive order indefinitely barring "Syrian refugees from entering the United States, suspended all refugee admissions for 120 days and blocked citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries, refugees or otherwise, from entering the United States for 90 days: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen". The ACLU responded by filing a lawsuit against the ban on behalf of Hameed Khalid Darweesh and Haider Sameer Abdulkhaleq Alshawi, who had been detained at JFK International Airport. On January 28, 2017, District Court Judge Ann Donnelly granted a temporary injunction against the immigration order, saying it was difficult to see any harm from allowing the newly arrived immigrants to remain in the country. In response to Trump's order, the ACLU raised more than $24 million from more than 350,000 individual online donations in a two-day period. This amounted to six times what the ACLU normally receives in online donations in a year. Celebrities donating included Chris Sacca (who offered to match other people's donations and ultimately gave $150,000), Rosie O'Donnell, Judd Apatow, Sia, John Legend, and Adele. The number of members of the ACLU doubled in the time from the election to end of January to 1 million. Grants and contributions increased from $106,628,381 USD reported by the 2016 year-end income statement to $274,104,575 by the 2017 year-end statement. The primary source of revenue from the segment came from individual contributions in response to the Trump presidency's infringements on civil liberty, civil liberties. The surge in donations more than doubled the total support and revenue of the non-profit organization year over year from 2016 to 2017. Besides filing more lawsuits than during previous presidential administrations, the ACLU has spent more money on advertisements and messaging as well, weighing in on elections and pressing political concerns. This increased public profile has drawn some accusations that the organization has become more politically partisan than in previous decades.Miscellaneous
During the 2004 trial regarding allegations of Rush Limbaugh's drug abuse, the ACLU argued that his privacy should not have been compromised by allowing law enforcement examination of his medical records.Donaldson-Evans, Catherine (January 12, 2004)See also
* American Civil Rights Union * British Columbia Civil Liberties Association * Canadian Civil Liberties Association * Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) * Institute for Justice * Liberty (advocacy group), Liberty, a British equivalent * List of court cases involving the American Civil Liberties Union * National Emergency Civil Liberties Committee * New York Civil Liberties Union * Political freedom * Southern Poverty Law CenterCitations
General references
* * Bodenhamer, David, and Ely, James, Editors (2008). ''The Bill of Rights in Modern America'', second edition. Indiana University Press. . * William A. Donohue, Donohue, William (1985). ''The Politics of the American Civil Liberties Union''. Transaction Books. . * Wendy Kaminer, Kaminer, Wendy (2009). ''Worst Instincts: Cowardice, Conformity, and the ACLU''. Beacon Press. . A dissident member of the ACLU criticizes its post-9/11 actions as betraying core principles of its founders. * * Lamson, Peggy (1976). ''Roger Baldwin: Founder of the American Civil Liberties Union''. Houghton Mifflin Company. . * Walker, Samuel (1990). ''In Defense of American Liberties: A History of the ACLU''. Oxford University Press. .Further reading
* Klein Woody, and Baldwin, Roger Nash (2006). ''Liberties lost: the endangered legacy of the ACLU''. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2006. A collection of essays by Baldwin, each accompanied by commentary from a modern analyst. * Krannawitter, Thomas L. and Palm, Daniel C. (2005). ''A Nation Under God?: The ACLU and religion in American politics''. Rowman & Littlefield. * Sears, Alan, and Osten, Craig (2005). ''The ACLU vs America: Exposing the Agenda to Redefine Moral Values''. B&H Publishing Group. * Smith, Frank LaGard (1996). ''ACLU: The Devil's Advocate: The Seduction of Civil Liberties in America''. Marcon Publishers.Archives
Selected works sponsored or published by the ACLU
* ''Annual Report – American Civil Liberties Union'', American Civil Liberties Union, 1921. * ''Black Justice'', ACLU, 1931. * ''How Americans Protest'', American Civil Liberties Union, 1963. * ''Secret detention by the Chicago police: a report'', American Civil Liberties Union, 1959. * ''Report on lawlessness in law enforcement'', Wickersham Commission, Patterson Smith, 1931. This report was written by the ACLU but published under the auspices of the Wickersham Commission. * Miller, Merle, (1952), '' The Judges and the Judged'', Doubleday. * '' ACLU organization records, 1947–1995''. Princeton University Library, Mudd Manuscript Library. * ''The Dangers of Domestic Spying by Federal Law Enforcement'', American Civil Liberties Union, 2002. * ''Engines of Liberty: The Power of Citizen Activists to Make Constitutional Law'', David D. Cole, 2016External links
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