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Active individuals have been the champions of our rights and freedoms since the signing of the Constitution. In fact, early concerns about civil liberties resulted in the Bill of Rights.
We have been very successful in the past 80 years at exposing abuse by government, promoting an equitable society, and ensuring that legislation is in line with the Constitution. Each and every day concerned citizens take steps -- such as meeting with their elected officials -- that make a real difference in ensuring their rights.
Since its inception, the ACLU Action Network has grown into the principle tool for people to take action in support of freedom. A network of nearly 400,000 concerned individuals, it represents the nation's bulwark against tyranny and is well-respected by Members of Congress and their staff.
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ACLU 100 Greatest Hits -- Landmark Supreme Court decisions in which the ACLU played a major role, either as direct counsel or as a friend-of-the-court (Flash required).
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Some recent Action Network success have included:
- In February 2004 more than a quarter million messages were sent to Congress opposing the federal marriage amendment. This groundswell of opposition helped stop the proposed amendment from passing in the Senate, thereby killing it.
- In the summer of 2004 the Action Network told people about the MATRIX -- a computer system that combines a vast array of government and private-sector personal information into a database which law enforcement agents can use to examine your private life and investigate your activities. People took action and launch a massive campaign to get their state legislatures to pull out from this invasive program. Public outrage persuaded leaders in eleven states to recognize the dangerous nature of the Matrix and refuse to participate in the program. In fact, more than two-thirds of states that initially supported Matrix have withdrawn from the project.
- Action Network members took action on the proposed Workplace Religious Freedom Act and helped stop it from passing. If it had made it into law, it would have strengthened the hand of police officers who want to pick and choose who they will protect, and emergency health care workers and mental health counselors who could abandon patients because their care conflicts with the worker’s religious beliefs. The strong action taken by Action Network members helped stopped this proposed legislation cold.
- Action network members have lobbied their Members of Congress on several proposed constitutional amendments, helping provide important perspectives and urge their Members to vote the right way.
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About the ACLU:
The ACLU is the foremost defender of the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The ACLU has played a major role in nearly every critical civil liberties battle of the last century -- in courtrooms, in Congress and in the public arena.
That proud tradition continues today. And in the midst of the government’s efforts to curtail freedom in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the ACLU has taken on an unprecedented workload and become even more important.
As we work to protect rights and liberties immediately at risk in the current crisis environment, you can also count on the ACLU to continue defending core liberties that are still at risk, but that have nothing to do with national security concerns. We don’t have the luxury of putting other core issues on a back burner as we fight new battles.
We now know from long experience that we can never let our guard down when it comes to protecting fundamental rights including keeping the government out of religion, freedom of speech, the right to choose, and equal rights for lesbians and gay men.
For it is in times like these, when attention is naturally focused elsewhere, that the foes of liberty are most likely to take advantage of a climate of fear and nostalgia to push an anti-liberty agenda that has nothing to do with the concerns at hand.
Below is a listing of some of our most significant recent victories:
- Defeated many of the Bush Administration’s most egregious attempts to deny liberty in the name of national security. Federal judges in New Jersey and Michigan rejected the government’s blanket policy of conducting secret deportation hearings in post-September 11 cases as a violation of the First Amendment. The ACLU brought both cases on behalf of news organizations and members of the public. We also led a massive media campaign which forced the Administration to dramatically scale back its proposed domestic spy program, Operation TIPS, which would have recruited postal and utility workers to spy on Americans in their homes.
- Hailed four major victories in the ACLU’s ongoing campaign to abolish capital punishment in America. In the states, Illinois and then Maryland declared moratoriums on the death penalty. And in the courts, the U.S. Supreme Court declared that that executing people with mental retardation violates the Constitution’s ban on “cruel and unusual” punishment. The Court also ruled that a death penalty trial must be resolved be a jury rather than a judge. Finally, a U.S. District Judge declared that the federal death penalty is unconstitutional.
- Defended in a U.S. Appeals Court the right of Colorado teens to have immediate access to an abortion without seeking parental consent. Parental consent laws put teens at grave risk, preventing them from getting critical health care even when they face serious medical conditions.
- Successfully challenged the Louisiana Governor’s Program on Abstinence which was using federal funds intended for abstinence-only sex education programs to impermissibly advance religion. This landmark victory came on the heels of another ACLU victory over a Louisiana law authorizing “spoken prayer” at public school-sponsored events.
- Spearheaded the overwhelming defeat of an effort by the Christian Coalition and others to overturn a Florida human rights ordinance that bans discrimination against gays and lesbians in housing, employment, lending and public.
- Filed several lawsuits to fix the fundamental inequities in our electoral system that were revealed in the 2000 elections. Victories have come in South Carolina, Montana and Illinois, and we have also filed a major lawsuit that challenges California’s discriminatory voting system.
These are only a handful of the cases in which the ACLU has successfully defended our most basic civil liberties. | |
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Regular people around the country are getting involved and making a difference. Here are some examples: | |
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