American Civil Liberties Union

In October 1917 Roger Nash Baldwin and Crystal Eastman created the National Civil Liberties Bureau, which separated from the American Union Against Militarism.⁠[1]

The bureau opposed U.S.United StatesThe United States is a federal country in North America made up of 50 states, the District of Columbia as the seat of government, and territories such as Puerto Rico and Guam; its capital is Washington, D.C. The Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. The 2020 census (April 1, 2020) counted a resident population of 331,449,281, and the 435 seats of the House of Representatives are apportioned among the states on the basis of the census.Open the full entry entry into World War I and assisted conscientious objectors and people prosecuted under the Espionage Act of 1917 and the Sedition Act of 1918.⁠[2]

In November 1919 and January 1920 the Palmer Raids led to thousands of arrests without warrants, after which “a small group of people decided to take a stand.”⁠[3]

The National Civil Liberties Bureau was reorganized in January 1920, and the American Civil Liberties Union was founded in New York City on January 19, 1920. Roger Nash Baldwin served as its first executive director (1920–1950) and Albert DeSilver as codirector (1920–1924); they answered to a local committee that met every Monday and were accountable to a larger national board. At the end of its first year it had about 1,000 members, a working budget of $20,000 and annual dues of $2.⁠[1]

Its founders also included Crystal Eastman and Helen Keller. In its first year the organization supported targets of Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer, including radical immigrants, and issued the “Report on the Illegal Practices of the United States Department of Justice,” written by twelve prominent lawyers, which prompted a Senate investigation.⁠[2][3][1]

In 1922 the organization created the Labor Defense Council, which supported textile workers in Passaic, New JerseyNew JerseyNew Jersey is a state in the eastern United States on the Atlantic Ocean, bordered by New York State, Delaware, and Pennsylvania, with the Hudson River forming its northeastern boundary and the Delaware River its western boundary; its capital is Trenton and its largest city is Newark. One of the original 13 colonies, it became the third state to ratify the U.S. Constitution on December 18, 1787, and its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 9,288,994.Open the full entry, steelworkers in Pittsburgh, marine workers in San Pedro, CaliforniaCaliforniaCalifornia is a U.S. state on the Pacific coast; its capital is Sacramento and its largest city is Los Angeles. California was admitted to the Union on September 9, 1850, as the 31st state. Its population at the 2020 Census (April 1, 2020) was 39,538,223, the largest of any state.Open the full entry, and coal miners in West VirginiaWest VirginiaWest Virginia is a U.S. state formed from the western counties of Virginia during the Civil War; its capital and largest city is Charleston. It became the 35th state on June 20, 1863. Its population was 1,793,716 in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020).Open the full entry. Its early free speech cases included the 1923 ban on Margaret Sanger speaking about birth control in New York City.⁠[1]

Gitlow v. New York (1925) was the organization’s first landmark Supreme Court case: Gitlow’s conviction was upheld, but the Supreme Court of the United StatesSupreme Court of the United StatesThe Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court of the U.S. federal judiciary. Established under the Constitution and the Judiciary Act of 1789, it has consisted since 1869 of a Chief Justice and eight Associate Justices and sits in Washington, D.C.Open the full entry held that the First Amendment’s free speech clause applies to the states. Later major cases included Whitney v. California (1927) and the Scottsboro Boys appeals Powell v. AlabamaAlabamaAlabama is a U.S. state in the Southeast on the Gulf of Mexico, with its capital at Montgomery. It was admitted to the Union on December 14, 1819, as the 22nd state, and the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) counted 5,024,279 residents.Open the full entry (1932) and Patterson v. Alabama (1935).⁠[4]

In March 1925 the Tennessee legislature passed the Butler Act, banning the teaching of evolution. The organization immediately offered to defend any teacher prosecuted under the act, and John T. Scopes, a high-school teacher in Dayton, agreed to be the defendant in a test case and was arrested on May 7, 1925.⁠[5][6]

The organization’s defense team was Clarence DarrowClarence DarrowClarence Darrow (1857–1938) was an American lawyer, public speaker and writer who practiced for nearly six decades and took on labor and criminal cases including the Pullman Strike prosecutions, the Leopold and Loeb case, the Scopes trial and the Sweet trials.Open the full entry and its general counsel, Arthur Garfield Hays; William Jennings BryanWilliam Jennings BryanWilliam Jennings Bryan (1860–1925) was an American politician and orator who represented Nebraska in the U.S. House, won the Democratic presidential nomination in 1896, 1900 and 1908 but lost each election, served as U.S. Secretary of State from 1913 to 1915, and was a prosecutor in the 1925 Scopes trial.Open the full entry led the prosecution. The trial ran from July 10 to 21, 1925; on July 20 Darrow called Bryan to testify as an expert on the Bible. On July 21 the jury returned a guilty verdict in under nine minutes, and Scopes was fined $100.⁠[6][5]

The organization had hoped to take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, but the Tennessee Supreme Court reversed the verdict on a technicality concerning the sentence. The Butler Act was repealed in 1967.⁠[6][3][5]

In 1940 the organization barred communists from leadership and staff positions, a policy that drew criticism.⁠[2]

After Pearl Harbor more than 110,000 Japanese Americans were sent to internment camps, and the organization, led by its California affiliates, spoke out against it. The challenges it sponsored in Hirabayashi v. United States (1943) and Korematsu v. United States (1944) were unsuccessful.⁠[3][4]

In 1954 the organization joined the NAACPNAACPThe NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) is an American civil rights organization founded in 1909, which the Library of Congress describes as the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights organization.Open the full entry in challenging school segregation, succeeding in Brown v. Board of Education. Later major cases included Miranda v. ArizonaArizonaArizona is a state in the southwestern United States; its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona was admitted to the Union on February 14, 1912, as the 48th state. Its population at the 2020 Census (April 1, 2020) was 7,151,502.Open the full entry (1966), In re Gault and Loving v. VirginiaVirginiaVirginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state whose capital is Richmond. It entered the Union on June 25, 1788, as the 10th state, and had a population of 8,631,393 in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020).Open the full entry (1967), Brandenburg v. OhioOhioOhio is a state in the Midwestern United States; its capital is Columbus. It joined the Union in 1803 as the 17th state, the first carved from the Northwest Territory, and its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 11,799,448.Open the full entry (1969), which it describes as a victory in its 50-year struggle against laws punishing political advocacy, Reed v. Reed (1971), the first equal protection case prohibiting sex discrimination, and Roe v. Wade (1973).⁠[3][4][2]

In 1977–1978 the organization supported the right of the National Socialist Party of America to hold parades and demonstrations in Skokie, IllinoisIllinoisIllinois is a state of the United States that borders Lake Michigan and the states of Wisconsin, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri and Iowa; its capital is Springfield and its largest city is Chicago. It was admitted to the Union on December 3, 1818, as the 21st state, and its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 12,812,508.Open the full entry, home to many Holocaust survivors. The organization says the case cost it members.⁠[2][3]

In 1997, in Reno v. American Civil Liberties Union, the organization challenged Congress’s first major attempt to regulate internet speech, and the Communications Decency Act was struck down. From 2001 it opposed the USA Patriot Act and its renewal, and it took part in Ashcroft v. American Civil Liberties Union (2004) and a 2006 challenge to warrantless surveillance.⁠[2][4]

Anthony D. Romero took the helm seven days before the September 11, 2001, attacks, becoming the organization’s sixth executive director and the first Latino and openly gay man in the post. He is a graduate of Stanford University Law SchoolStanford Law SchoolStanford Law School is Stanford University’s law school. Its law curriculum began in 1893, and it offers JD and advanced law degrees. Its alumni include technology-media entrepreneur Michael Arrington.Open the full entry and the Princeton UniversityPrinceton UniversityPrinceton University is a private university and Ivy League member in Princeton, New Jersey. Chartered on October 22, 1746 as the College of New Jersey, it moved to Princeton in 1756 and adopted its present name in 1896. Undergraduate education leads to A.B. and B.S.E. degrees and emphasizes small-group discussion, independent research and residential college life. Graduate education spans the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences and engineering. As of October 2026, Christopher L. Eisgruber was president. Its 2026–27 operating budget was $3.407 billion, including $342 million for undergraduate aid.Open the full entry School of Public Policy and International Affairs.⁠[7]

In 2018 the organization adopted new case-selection guidelines for speech cases. In 2021 it represented Brandi Levy, a student suspended from her school cheerleading squad over an off-campus SnapchatSnapchatA visual messaging and social app developed by Snap Inc., launched in 2011, with photo and video messaging, Stories, augmented-reality Lenses, Snap Map and Spotlight.Open the full entry post, and the Supreme Court of the United States found that the suspension violated her free speech rights.⁠[2]

As of November 2026 the organization’s executive director was Anthony D. Romero and its president was Deborah Archer, a professor at NYUNew York UniversityNew York University is a private university in New York City, founded in 1831, and one of the largest private universities in the United States.Open the full entry School of Law, who chairs its board of directors and executive committee.⁠[7][8]

Its headquarters are at 125 Broad Street, and it has a 50-state network of staffed, autonomous affiliate offices; it receives no government funding.⁠[3]

BritannicaEncyclopædia BritannicaEncyclopædia Britannica is a general English-language encyclopedia first published in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1768; the name also refers to its publisher, Chicago-based Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. (which presents itself as The Britannica Group). The print edition ended in 2012, and the company’s main businesses since then have been the online encyclopedia Britannica.com, digital education products for schools and libraries, and Merriam-Webster dictionaries.Open the full entry records that in the early 21st century the organization had more than 500,000 members, thousands of volunteers, about 100 staff attorneys and a national board of directors. Its cases also involved Sacco-Vanzetti (1921), Scottsboro (1931–35), Jehovah’s Witnesses and flag salutes in the late 1930s, loyalty oaths and blacklisting in the 1950s and ’60s, and school prayer, the right to counsel for indigent defendants and the exclusion of illegally obtained evidence; its challenges to censorship helped make books such as James Joyce’s Ulysses importable into the United States.⁠[9]

American Civil Liberties Union: Official website: https://www.aclu.org/ (opens in a new window).⁠[3]