American Civil Liberties Union

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), non-profit-making litigation and lobbying organization founded in 1920. Originally established to defend conscientious objectors during World War I, the organization later expanded its activities to include defending “freedom of expression, privacy, due process, and equal protection—in a non-partisan fashion on behalf of anyone, irrespective of how unpopular the cause”. Founding members of the ACLU included social reformer Jane Addams, writers Helen Keller and James Weldon Johnson, socialist leaders Eugene V. Debs and Norman Thomas, jurist Felix Frankfurter, legislator and women's rights leader Jeanette Rankin, and other women's rights activists, such as Crystal Eastman, Mary Ware Dennett, and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn. The ACLU's national headquarters is in New York. The organization also has offices in Washington, D.C.

The ACLU maintains affiliated organizations in 51 regions throughout the United States. These regional offices are autonomous but operate within policies set by the national board. The ACLU's main activities include litigation, lobbying, and public education. Cases defended by the ACLU are chosen by staff attorneys, advisory committees, a legal director, and an executive director. The ACLU is funded by membership dues and donations. In 2007 it had over 500,000 members and supporters.

Among the issues that concern the ACLU are women's rights, reproductive freedom, lesbian and gay rights, art censorship, children's rights, immigrants', foreign detainees’, and aliens' rights, AIDS awareness, civil liberties, national security, privacy and technology, capital punishment, and prisons. Historic legal cases in which the ACLU has been involved include the Scottsboro case; the Scopes trial; and Brown vs. Board of Education, in which the Supreme Court of the United States ruled against segregation in schools. The organization also argued against the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II.

Reviewed by: American Civil Liberties Union