ACLU Presentation

Impact and Power of

What is the ACLU?

The American Civil Liberties Union, or ACLU, is a non-profit organization that strives to protect the constitutional rights of Americans. The organization identifies itslef as non-partisian, and was founded following WWI.

Quick Facts

• Collectively made up of thousands of volenteer and staff attorneys

• Founded in 1920 by Roger Baldwin

Current cases the ACLU is taking on include

• Voting Rights: ACLU is currently in court for Senate Bill 1, as the Texas Legislature aims to restrict voting rights for marginaliuzed black and brown voter communities

• Idaho and Moyle, et al. v. United States, The ACLU is currently striving to repeal a ban on abortion that punishes doctors for administering

• Abdullahi Khalif Noor v. Melissa Andrewjeski: The ACLU has intervened in a decision to convict a Somali Refugee who faces conviction, as prosecuters may have hid evidence proving innocence

Roger Baldwin

Roger Baldwin founded the ACLU in 1920, following the end of WWI. Baldwin, driven and strong willed, refused to join the US military before WWI. His involvment with the American Union Against Militarism as leader of the Civil Liberties Bureau would evantually forsee him seperating the group to create the ACLU as we know it today

Early Fights for Justice

United States v. Schooner Amistad.

A definitive case in the history of the ACLU, this trial helped to set the precedent for racial justice. Regarding the property rights between Spain and the US, the Amistad crew was detained, yet the precedent for which they were prosecuted was unjust.

Baldwin, currently leader of the ACLU, took up the case to represent the Africans. He made the arguement that the Africans, who were unjust taken and enslaved, were free, and that since they were being imprisioned upon the ship, the US must treat and recognize them as free.

The court ruled 7-1 in favor of the Africans, cementing it as a pivotal case for racial justice within the US.

ACLU's Impact Across the Nation

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and learn the history of the ACLU

QUIZ TIME

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The ACLU is an organization that aims to uphold the rights guarenteed under the constitution. It does not have a partisian stance in any way.

Thank You for Participating!

Support the selfless and just work of the ACLU at the link below.

https://www.aclu.org/

All information and research obtained from the ACLU's website

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• The ACLU spoke out alone against this act, striving to protect the civil rights of all Americans

Pearl Harbor, 1941

Japanese Internment

Following the attacks on Pearl Harbor, on December 7 1941, President FDR signed an executive order sending Japanese and Japanese Americans to internment camps, creating generational trauma and anguish among tens of thousands, of which many were US citizens.

In this landmark Civil Rights Case, the ACLU along with the NCAAP successfully pushed this case to the Supreme Court, in which it was appealed by the court in violation of the 14th Amendment, ending segregation in schools across the country (legislation wise.)

Brown v. Board of Education

The ACLU has pursued challenging the power and extent of this legislation, citing a breach of civil rights and the privacy of innocent Americans.

Challenging the Patriot Act

Following 9//11, the Bush administration passed the Patriot Act, which greatly expanded the power of the intelligence organizations of the US government, as well as diminished the individual privacy rights of all Americans.

ACLU is truly a Constitional Org.

Brandenburg v. Ohio

Despite the numerous cases of the ACLU defending marginalized groups and its progressive stances, the ACLU operates on the basis of the constitution.

This includes defending the Freedom of Speech of all Americans, even those that may pose a threat. In 1964, Clarence Brandenburg of the KKK was found in violation of the Ohio Criminal Syndicalism Statute, yet the ACLU protected Brandenburg's stance and the Supreme Court evantually decided in favor of Brandenburg.