ACLU HISTORY

The national American Civil Liberties Union was founded in 1920 by a group of men and women working to protect the rights of conscientious objectors. Today, there are affiliates in nearly every state. The ACLU of Delaware was formed in 1961.

Roger Baldwin founded the ACLU in 1920 to address a number of important civil liberties issues of the time:

• Citizens were sitting in jail for holding anti-war views.
• U.S. Attorney General Palmer was conducting raids upon immigrants suspected of holding unorthodox opinions.
• Racial segregation was the law of the land and violence against African Americans was routine.
• Sex discrimination was firmly institutionalized; it wasn't until 1920 that women even got the vote.
• Constitutional rights for prisoners; poor people; the homeless; the mentally ill; lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, and other groups were undefined.
• Perhaps most significantly, the Supreme Court had yet to uphold a single free speech claim under the First Amendment.

The ACLU was the first public interest law firm of its kind, and immediately began the work of transforming the ideals contained in the Bill of Rights into living, breathing realities.

85 Years of ACLU Highlights

1920: The Palmer Raids
In its first year, the ACLU worked at combating the deportation of immigrants for their radical beliefs (ordered by Attorney General Palmer), opposing attacks on the rights of Industrial Workers of the World and trade unions to hold meetings and organize, and securing release from prison for hundreds sentenced during the war for expression of antiwar sentiments.

1925: The Scopes Case
When Tennessee's new anti-evolution law became effective in March 1925, the ACLU at once sought a test of the statute's attack on free speech and secured John T. Scopes, a young science teacher, as a plaintiff.  Clarence Darrow, a member of the Union's National Committee, headed the ACLU's volunteer defense team.  Scopes was convicted and fined $100.  On appeal, the Tennessee Supreme Court upheld the statute but reversed the conviction.

1939: Mayor Hague
Mayor Frank ("I am the law") Hague of Jersey City claimed the right to deny free speech to anyone he thought radical. The ACLU took Hague to the Supreme Court, which ruled that public places such as streets and parks belong to the people, not the mayor.

1942: The Rights of Japanese Americans
Two and a half months after Pearl Harbor, 110,000 Japanese Americans, two-thirds of whom were U.S. citizens, were evacuated from their homes and relocated in a series of inland U.S. concentration camps.  The episode was a national tragedy, rightfully called by the ACLU "the worst single wholesale violation of civil rights of Americans citizens in our history."  The strongest voices against evacuation and relocation came from ACLU affiliates on the West Coast.

1950: Loyalty Oaths
During the Cold War era after World War II, Congress and many state legislatures passed loyalty-oath laws requiring certain groups, particularly public school teachers, to swear that they were not Communists or members of any "subversive organizations." Throughout the decade, the ACLU fought a running battle against the government's loyalty-security program.

1954: School Desegregation
On May 17, 1954, in Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court issued its historic decision that segregation in public schools violates the 14th Amendment.  The ACLU joined the legal battle that resulted in the Court's decision.  Three state cases were joined in the Brown case, including Belton v. Gebhart, the only case of the three where the state Supreme Court ruled to desegregate public schools.

1973: Impeach Nixon
The ACLU was the first major national organization to call for the impeachment of President Richard Nixon. The ACLU listed six grounds for impeachment affecting civil liberties -- specific, proved violations of the right of political dissent; usurpation of Congressional war-making powers; establishment of a personal secret police that committed crimes; attempted interference in the trial of Daniel Ellsberg; distortion of the system of justice; and perversion of other federal agencies.

1973: Abortion Decriminalized
In Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, the Supreme Court held that the constitutional right to privacy encompasses a pregnant woman's decision to bear a child or have an abortion. The ruling struck down state laws that had made the performance of an abortion a criminal act. The ACLU was and remains active in the courts to protect that right.

1981: Creationism in Arkansas
In Arkansas, 56 years after Scopes, the ACLU challenged a statute that called for the teaching of the biblical story of creation as a "scientific alternative" to the theory of evolution. The statute, which fundamentalists saw as a model for other states, was ruled unconstitutional.  Creation-science, the judge said, was not a science but religion, and could not constitutionally be required by state law.

1989: Fall-Out from Anti-ACLU Attacks
Within months after George Bush attacked the ACLU during the Presidential campaign, 50,000 new members signed up in a surge of support for the organization.

1989: Texas v. Johnson
This First Amendment invalidation of the Texas flag desecration statute provoked newly inaugurated President George Bush to propose a federal ban on flag burning or mutilation.  Congress swiftly obliged, but the Court struck down the law a year later in United States v. Eichman -- in which the ACLU also filed a brief.  Both rulings were important victories for symbolic political speech.

R.A.V. v. Wisconsin
In an important First Amendment victory, a unanimous Court struck down a local law banning the display, on public or private property, of any symbol "that arouses anger, alarm or resentment in others on the basis of race, color, creed, religion or gender."

Lee v. Weisman
The Court ruled that any officially sanctioned prayer at public school graduation ceremonies violates the Establishment Clause.

1993: J.E.B. v. T.B.
In this important women's rights victory, the Court held that a prosecutor could not use peremptory challenges to disqualify potential jurors based on their gender.

1994: Ladue v. Gallo
Unanimously, the Court struck down an Ohio town's ordinance that had barred a homeowner from posting a sign that said, "Say No to War in the Gulf -- Call Congress Now!"

1997 Internet Freedom
The Supreme Court struck down two anti-obscenity provisions of the Communications Decency Act, finding they violated the freedom of speech provisions of the First Amendment. This was the first major Supreme Court ruling regarding the regulation of materials distributed via Internet.

2003 Lawrence v. Texas
In a landmark decision for advocates of gay and lesbian rights, the Supreme Court struck down the criminal prohibition of private sexual conduct. Lawrence has the effect of invalidating similar laws that purport to criminalize heterosexual and homosexual activity between consenting adults acting in private solely on morality concerns.

2005 Intelligent Design in Pennsylvania:  Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District
The ACLU challenged a public school district requirement that "Intelligent Design" be presented in science class as an alternative to evolution. The court ruled that intelligent design is a form of creationism, not science, and therefore the school board policy violated the separation of church and state.

2006 The Challenge to Illegal Spying: ACLU v. National Security Agency
The ACLU defeated the Bush administration in the first federal challenge ever argued against the president's NSA spying program: A district court declared the program unconstitutional and called for an immediate halt to this abuse of presidential power.

 

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