Hightlights of ACLU History

1920: The Palmer Raids

In its first year the ACLU worked at combating the deportation of aliens for their radical beliefs (ordered by Attorney General Palmer), opposing attacks on the rights of the Industrial Workers of the World and trade unions to hold meetings and organize, and securing the release from prison for the hundreds sentenced during the war for expression of antiwar opinions.

1925: The Scopes Case

When Tennessee's new anti-evolution law became effective in March 1925, the ACLU sought a test of the statute's attack on free speech and secured John T. Scopes, a young science teacher, as a plaintiff. Clarence Darrow, a member of the Union's National Committee and an agnostic, headed the ACLU's volunteer defense team. Scopes was convicted and fined $100. On appeal, the Tennessee Supreme Court upheld the statute but reversed the conviction.

1933: The Ulysses Case

Federal Judge John M. Woolsey, in New York, rendered an historic anticensorship decision that admitted James Joyce's Ulysses into the U.S. after a long legal battle supported by the ACLU.

1939: Mayor Hague

The ACLU argued successfully before the Supreme Court that a ban on union organizers' political meetings imposed by the rabidly anti-labor mayor of Jersey City, Frank ("I Am the Law") Hague, was unconstitutional. The Court ruled that the ban violated the First Amendment right to freedom of assembly.

1942: Japanese Americans

The ACLU stood almost alone in denouncing the federal government's roundup and interment in concentration camps 110,000 Japanese Americans, two-thirds of whom were citizens. The strongest voices against evacuation and relocation came from the ACLU affiliates on the West Coast. In 1993, Congress officially apologized for the action.

1950: Loyalty Oaths

For a decade the ACLU fought running court battles against loyalty oaths, which a government gripped by Cold War fever demanded from federal workers. Many state legislatures passed laws requiring one group or another, particularly public school teachers, to swear that they were not Communists or members of any "subversive organization."

1954: School Desegregation

The ACLU joined a legal battle that began years before and would continue far beyond its most celebrated victory: the May 17 Supreme Court decision in Brown v. The Board of Education, declaring racially segregated public schools in violation of the 14th Amendment.

1960: Civil Rights Movement

From the first lunch counter sit-in in 1960 through the freedom rides and later mass marches, the ACLU supported the civil rights movement's goal of racial justice and equal opportunity and defended on First Amendment grounds its choice of peaceful demonstrations as the principle means for achieving that goal.

1973: Abortion Decriminalized

In Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, the Supreme Court held that the constitutional right to privacy encompasses a woman's right to decide whether she will terminate or continue a pregnancy. The ruling struck down all criminal abortion laws in the states. The ACLU remains in the forefront of the struggle to protect women's right to reproductive choice and to achieve women's equality on all fronts.

1981: Creationism in Arkansas

The ACLU, 56 years after the Scopes trial, challenged an Arkansas statute requiring that the biblical story of creation be taught as a "scientific alternative" to the theory of evolution. A federal court found the statute, which fundamentalists saw as a model for other states, unconstitutional. "Creation-science," said the court, was not science but was actually religion, and, therefore, could not constitutionally be required by state law.

1982: Voting Rights Extended

More than 15 months of grassroots lobbying by the ACLU and other groups paid off when the Senate, following the example of the House, overwhelmingly voted to renew the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

1989: Flag Burning

The U.S. Supreme Court invalidated a Texas statute punishing flag desecration, which the Justices described as a form of political speech protected by the First Amendment. The House of Representatives then passed an amendment to the Constitution requiring punishment to "protect" the flag. The ACLU fought back, warning Congress that such an amendment would incinerate the very principle for which the flag stands. The ACLU prevailed in the Senate.

1996: Romer v. Evans

For the first time, the Supreme Court recognized the civil rights of lesbians and gay men by invalidating a state constitutional amendment, passed by public referendum in Colorado, that prohibited the state and its municipalities from enacting gay rights laws.

1997: ACLU v. Reno

The Court struck down the 1996 Communications Decency Act, which censored the Internet by banning "indecent" speech. Although this was a major First Amendment victory for the information age, the battle continues; the ACLU often finds itself defending online free speech from further assault.

Today: Staying the Course

The ACLU confronts both traditional and new threats to civil liberties on many fronts. The Internet offers opportunities for freedom of expression but, at the same time, presents dangers to privacy rights. Meanwhile, our society's most intractable problems remain age-old ones: racism, sexism, homophobia, religious intolerance, and censorship of unpopular speech. The ACLU's mission remains realizing the promise of the Bill of Rights for all and expanding the reach of its guarantees to new areas.

--From the ACLU Position Paper "Freedom Is Why We're Here."  You can also read a PDF version of the entire Position Paper. If you need the viewer for this file format, go to Adobe Acrobat Reader.