The American Civil Liberties Union :: essays research papers fc

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)      Where do you go if someone is threatening your personalised rights? Do yougo to the police, or maybe to the regimen? What if the police and governmentare the parties threatening your rights? All you squander to do is just remember theACLU (American Civil Liberties Union). Sounds like a commercial doesnt it. TheACLU blankets the United States with its legal protection. It is pertain in somany aspects of the fight for genteel liberties that it is difficult to foil itall. To fully understand what the ACLU has done for the United States would takemuch longish 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 constitution that beganthe struggle to protect the polished liberties of the American people. The ACLU isdefined as being a US non-partisan organi zation offering legal aid and otherassistance in nerves of colza of civil liberties.(Websters) Civil libertiescontain a substantial body of fairness including freedom of speech and press,separation of church and state, free exercise of religion, receivable process of law,equal protection, and privacy.(Walker 3) The Encyclopedia of the Constitutiondefines civil liberties as "those rights that an head-to-head citizens may assertagainst the government." In a formal sense, the ACLU is a private voluntaryorganization dedicated to defending the Bill of Rights. Officially establishin 1920, theACLU now claims over 270,000 members. With offices in most of the states and theDistrict of capital of South Carolina the ACLU justifiably calls itself " the nations largestlaw firm."(Walker 4)     The ACLU, despite its noble goal, has a terrible frequent image. Thereason for such hatred or support is the fact that civil liberty cases generallyinvolve moral and personal issues. These issues are those that fire up feelingsfrom all corners of society. The rights the ACLU is generally protecting arethose segments of society that least equal 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 institute 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.