The American Civil Liberties Union :: essays research papers fc

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)      Where do you go if someone is lowering your personal rights? Do yougo to the police, or maybe to the government? What if the police and governmentare the parties threatening your rights? All you have to do is just skirt theACLU (American Civil Liberties Union). Sounds like a commercial doesnt it. TheACLU blankets the United States with its legal valueion. It is involved in somany aspects of the fight for cultured liberties that it is difficult to cover itall. To richly understand what the ACLU has done for the United States would takemuch longer than I have. Therefore, I have picked a couple of incidents that, tome, exemplify what the ACLU is, and how they have affected our society.     The ACLU, American Civil Liberties Union, is an organization that beganthe struggle to protect the civil liberties of the American people. The ACLU isdefined as being a US non-partisan organization offering le gal attention and otherassistance in cases of violation of civil liberties.(Websters) Civil libertiescontain a substantial body of law including freedom of speech and press,separation of church and state, free exercise of religion, due process of law,equal protection, and privacy.(Walker 3) The Encyclopedia of the Constitutiondefines civil liberties as "those rights that an individual citizens may assertagainst the government." In a noble sense, the ACLU is a private voluntaryorganization dedicated to defending the Bill of Rights. Officially establishedin 1920, theACLU now claims over 270,000 members. With offices in almost of the states and the territory of Columbia the ACLU justifiably calls itself " the nations largestlaw firm."(Walker 4)     The ACLU, despite its noble goal, has a terrible public image. Thereason for such hatred or support is the fact that civil liberty cases generallyinvolve moral and personal issues. These issues are tho se that incite feelingsfrom all corners of society. The rights the ACLU is generally protecting arethose segments of society that least agree with mainstream society. The ACLU haspromised to protect the rights of everyone. Those rights include the free speechrights of such detested groups as the Ku Klux Klan, Nazis, and Communist. TheSkokie Case is an example of the classic freedom of speech case the ACLU wouldundertake. This case which hit the media April 28, 1977, concerned the right ofAmerican Nazi Frank Collin to demonstrate in Skokie, IL. (Walker 323) This caselike many before and after defended the rights of a person espousing one ofthe most universally despised ideology in the country.