The American Civil Liberties Union :: essays research papers fc

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)      Where do you go if someone is threatening your personal rights? Do yougo to the police, or possibly to the government? What if the police and government are the parties threatening your rights? All you start to do is just call theACLU (American Civil Liberties Union). Sounds like a commercialised doesnt it. TheACLU blankets the coupled States with its legal protection. It is involved in so many an(prenominal) aspects of the maintain for civil liberties that it is difficult to cover itall. To fully 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 brass that beganthe struggle to protect the civil liberties of the American people. The ACLU isdefined as world a US non-partisan organization offering legal aid and early(a)assistance in cases of violation of civil liberties.(Websters) Civil libertiescontain a substantial body of law including freedom of row and press,separation of church building and state, free exercise of religion, due process of law,equal protection, and privacy.(Walker 3) The Encyclopedia of the shapingdefines civil liberties as "those rights that an individual citizens may assertagainst the government." In a formal sense, the ACLU is a private voluntaryorganization dedicated to reason the Bill of Rights. Officially establishedin 1920, theACLU now claims over 270,000 members. With offices in most of the states and theDistrict 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 good and personal issues. Th ese issues are those 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.