Also known as: ACLU
Written by attorneys — see sources below.
A national organization whose primary purpose is to help enforce and preserve individual rights and liberties guaranteed by federal and state constitutions.
Audrey Ashton received a letter from the American Civil Liberties Union explaining her rights in an ongoing dispute and offering free representation to advance civil liberties goals. The organization prepared the communication as part of its advocacy work. A local ordinance attempted to prohibit such outreach entirely. The letter campaign proceeded because the activity qualified as protected expressive conduct.
Anita Ali joined an American Civil Liberties Union suit against a rule that blocked adult access to protected internet content without workable age verification. The organization argued the measure functioned as an overbroad restriction. The court evaluated whether the filters could be bypassed by adults. The claim advanced because no reliable gateway existed at scale.
In 1996 Congress enacted the Communications Decency Act as Title V of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Immediately after the President signed the bill, twenty plaintiffs including the American Civil Liberties Union filed suit in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania against the Attorney General challenging the constitutionality of 47 U.S.C. §§ 223(a)(1)(B) and 223(d). A week later a second suit was filed by twenty-seven additional plaintiffs; the cases were consolidated and a three-judge district court was convened. The district court conducted an evidentiary hearing based on a detailed stipulation of 356 paragraphs plus live testimony and made 410 findings of fact. Those findings described the Internet as an international network of interconnected computers that had grown from roughly 300 host computers in 1981 to approximately 9,400,000 by the time of trial, with about 40 million users expected to reach 200 million by 1999. The findings detailed communication methods including e-mail, mail exploders, newsgroups, chat rooms, and the World Wide Web, noting that any person or organization with Internet access could publish information and that the content available was as diverse as human thought. The district court further found that sexually explicit material on the Internet included text, pictures, and chat extending from the modestly titillating to the hardest-core, that such material was widely available but users seldom encountered it accidentally because a series of affirmative steps was required to access specific content, and that almost all sexually explicit images were preceded by warnings. The court determined there was no effective way to determine the identity or age of a user accessing material through e-mail, mail exploders, newsgroups, or chat rooms and that credit-card or adult-password verification systems were not economically feasible for most noncommercial providers and would impose significant burdens including the exclusion of adults without credit cards. The district court entered a preliminary injunction against enforcement of the two challenged provisions. The Government appealed directly to the Supreme Court under the CDA's special review provisions, and the Court noted probable jurisdiction.
View caseAbigail Alvarez sought American Civil Liberties Union support in a dispute over parental recognition after genetic testing. The organization filed an amicus brief urging recognition of multiple parents. The court considered policy factors in weighing presumptions. The brief highlighted stable family arrangements without creating new categories.
In 1984 Crispina Calvert underwent a hysterectomy that left her ovaries capable of producing eggs. She and her husband Mark desired a child genetically related to both of them. In 1989 Anna Johnson, a licensed vocational nurse who had previously given birth to a daughter, learned of Crispina's situation from a coworker and offered to serve as a surrogate. On January 15, 1990, Mark, Crispina, and Anna signed a written contract providing that an embryo created from Mark's sperm and Crispina's egg would be implanted in Anna, who would carry the child to term and relinquish all parental rights to the Calverts upon birth. In exchange the Calverts agreed to pay Anna $10,000 in installments, with the final payment due six weeks after birth, and to purchase a $200,000 life insurance policy on Anna's life. The zygote was implanted on January 19, 1990, and an ultrasound confirmed Anna's pregnancy less than a month later. During the pregnancy relations between the parties deteriorated. Anna felt the Calverts were not providing sufficient attention or obtaining the required insurance policy in a timely manner. In July 1990 Anna demanded the balance of the payments or she would refuse to relinquish the child. The following month the Calverts filed suit in superior court seeking a declaration that they were the legal parents of the unborn child. Anna filed her own action to be declared the mother, the cases were consolidated, and the parties agreed to the appointment of a guardian ad litem for the child. The child was born on September 19, 1990. Blood samples taken from Anna and the child excluded Anna as the genetic mother. The parties stipulated that Mark and Crispina were the genetic parents. After a trial in October 1990 the superior court ruled that the Calverts were the child's genetic, biological, and natural parents, that Anna had no parental rights, that the surrogacy contract was enforceable, and that Anna was not entitled to visitation. Anna appealed. The Court of Appeal for the Fourth District, Division Three, affirmed the judgment. The Supreme Court of California granted review.
View caseAriana Azizi contacted the American Civil Liberties Union after a city rejected a proposed display on public land. The organization analyzed whether the rejection treated private speech as government expression. The court applied an observer test to classify the monument. The analysis turned on whether a reasonable viewer would attribute the message to the government.
Pioneer Park is a 2.5 acre public park located in the Historic District of Pleasant Grove City, Utah. The park currently contains 15 permanent displays, at least 11 of which were donated by private groups or individuals. These include an historic granary, a wishing well, the City’s first fire station, a September 11 monument, and a Ten Commandments monument donated by the Fraternal Order of Eagles in 1971. Respondent Summum is a religious organization founded in 1975 and headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah. On two separate occasions in 2003, Summum’s president wrote a letter to the City’s mayor requesting permission to erect a stone monument containing the Seven Aphorisms of Summum. The monument was to be similar in size and nature to the Ten Commandments monument. The City denied the requests. It explained that its practice was to limit monuments in the Park to those that either directly relate to the history of Pleasant Grove or were donated by groups with longstanding ties to the Pleasant Grove community. The following year the City passed a resolution putting this policy into writing. The resolution also mentioned other criteria such as safety and esthetics. In May 2005 Summum’s president again wrote to the mayor asking to erect a monument. The letter did not describe the monument, its historical significance, or Summum’s connection to the community. The city council rejected this request. In 2005 Summum filed this action against the City and local officials. It asserted that they had violated the Free Speech Clause by accepting the Ten Commandments monument but rejecting the proposed Seven Aphorisms monument. Summum sought a preliminary injunction directing the City to permit it to erect its monument in Pioneer Park. After the District Court denied Summum’s preliminary injunction request, a panel of the Tenth Circuit reversed. The Tenth Circuit denied the City’s petition for rehearing en banc by an equally divided vote. The Supreme Court granted certiorari and now reviews the case.
View caseAlice Atkins worked with the American Civil Liberties Union to challenge provisions of a federal campaign finance statute. The organization joined other plaintiffs alleging unconstitutional limits on speech. The litigation examined contributions and expenditures under prior precedents. The suit tested whether the amendments survived constitutional review.
The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 amended the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, the Communications Act of 1934, and other statutes to address the role of soft money and issue advocacy in federal elections. Plaintiffs included a diverse group of entities and individuals such as the National Rifle Association and the American Civil Liberties Union who alleged that BCRA was unconstitutional. Defendants included the Federal Election Commission and the Attorney General of the United States. The case was filed in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia and heard by a three-judge panel pursuant to special procedures in BCRA Section 403. The District Court received a voluminous record from the parties and issued a judgment on May 1, 2003, that upheld some provisions of BCRA and invalidated others. All losing parties filed direct appeals to the Supreme Court within ten days, and the Court noted probable jurisdiction on June 5, 2003, ordering expedited briefing and argument on September 8, 2003. More than a century of federal legislation preceded BCRA, beginning with the Tillman Act of 1907 that banned corporate contributions in connection with federal elections. Congress later extended prohibitions to unions, required disclosure of contributions and expenditures, and enacted FECA in 1971 with further amendments in 1974 that imposed contribution limits, expenditure ceilings, and created the FEC. The Supreme Court addressed constitutional challenges to the 1974 amendments in Buckley v. Valeo. After Buckley, the FEC permitted political parties to fund mixed-purpose activities such as voter registration and generic advertising in part with soft money not subject to FECA's source and amount limits. Soft-money fundraising by the national parties grew from $21.6 million in 1984 to $498 million in 2000, with large corporate and union donations often motivated by a desire for access to federal candidates. National parties transferred substantial soft money to state parties, which could use higher percentages for mixed activities under FEC allocation rules. The use of soft money also supported so-called issue ads that avoided express advocacy of a candidate's election or defeat and therefore fell outside FECA's disclosure and source restrictions. These ads frequently aired in the 60 days before federal elections, referred to clearly identified candidates, and were funded by corporations, unions, and tax-exempt organizations using misleading names. A Senate investigation into 1996 federal election practices documented both parties' use of soft money to obtain special access for large donors and the coordination of issue ads with candidates. The District Court compiled extensive evidence from declarations, expert reports, and internal party documents showing that federal officeholders solicited soft-money donations, that parties maintained tallies crediting donors to particular candidates, and that large soft-money contributions were often made to secure influence rather than for ideological reasons.
View caseAva Adebayo received American Civil Liberties Union assistance in a case testing federal authority over local conduct. The organization submitted arguments on the limits of enumerated powers. The court assessed whether the statute regulated activity with substantial effects on interstate commerce. The brief addressed institutional roles in drawing constitutional lines.
In March 1992, Alfonso Lopez, Jr., a twelfth-grade student at Edison High School in San Antonio, Texas, arrived at school carrying a concealed .38-caliber handgun and five bullets. Acting on an anonymous tip, school authorities confronted Lopez, who admitted possessing the weapon. Local police arrested him and charged him under Texas law with firearm possession on school premises. The following day, state charges were dismissed after federal agents charged Lopez with violating the Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990. A federal grand jury indicted him on one count of knowing possession of a firearm at a school zone. Lopez moved to dismiss the indictment, arguing that the statute exceeded Congress's power to legislate control over public schools. The district court denied the motion, concluding that the statute was a constitutional exercise of Congress's power to regulate activities affecting commerce because the business of schools affects interstate commerce. After a bench trial, the court found Lopez guilty and sentenced him to six months' imprisonment and two years of supervised release. Lopez appealed to the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which reversed the conviction, holding that the statute was beyond Congress's power under the Commerce Clause. The Supreme Court granted certiorari to review the case.
View caseThe organization works to enforce and preserve individual rights and liberties under federal and state constitutions through litigation and advocacy.
It frequently serves as plaintiff or amicus curiae in challenges involving speech protections, compelled expression, and internet regulation.
No. Its letters and outreach receive greater First Amendment protection than in-person commercial solicitation and may not be banned outright absent actual deception.