American Civil Liberties Union
MISSION
For nearly 100 years, the ACLU has been our nation’s guardian of liberty, working in courts, legislatures, and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties that the Constitution and the laws of the United States guarantee everyone in this country.
Whether it’s achieving full equality for lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people; establishing new privacy protections for our digital age of widespread government surveillance; ending mass incarceration; or preserving the right to vote or the right to have an abortion; the ACLU takes up the toughest civil liberties cases and issues to defend all people from government abuse and overreach.
WHERE YOUR SUPPORT GOES
We have grown from a roomful of civil libertarians to more than 1 million members, activists, and supporters across the country. The ACLU is now a nationwide organization with a 50-state network of staffed affiliate offices filing cases in both state and federal courts. We appear before the United States Supreme Court more than any other organization except the U.S. Department of Justice.
In addition, we work to change policy as well as hearts and minds. Our Washington Legislative Office lobbies the U.S. Congress to pass bills that advance or defend civil liberties and defeat those that do not; our affiliates work in state houses across the country to do the same; and we use strategic communications to engage supporters on the most pressing civil liberties issues of our time. The defense of America’s core liberties cannot rely on the courts alone. Politics and public opinion matter too.
The ACLU is nonprofit and nonpartisan. We do not receive any government funding. Member dues as well as contributions and grants from private foundations and individuals pay for the work we do.
THE RESULTS
With more than a million members, activists, and supporters, the ACLU is a nationwide organization that fights tirelessly in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and Washington, D.C. to safeguard everyone’s rights.