"Fear of serious injury cannot alone justify suppression of free speech and assembly. Men feared witches and burned women. It is the function of speech to free men from the bondage of irrational fears."
--Justice Louis D. Brandeis

"The voice of protest, of warning, of appeal is never more needed than when the clamor of fife and drum, echoed by the press and too often by the pulpit, is bidding all men fall in and keep step and obey in silence the tyrannous word of command. Then, more than ever, it is the duty of the good citizen not to be silent." --Charles Eliot Norton

Speakers Bureau

Would members of your organization like to learn more about the work of the ACLU or do they have questions about a particular civil liberties issue?  We have speakers ready to address your group.

To request a speaker for your next luncheon, meeting, or classroom presentation, simply fill in the Speakers Request Form. ACLU speakers are available to your group at no charge.  If your budget includes an honorarium, we would gladly accept that to offset the costs of our brochures and pamphlets.

Members of our Speakers Bureau give presentations to students, community organizations, service organizations, professional associations, and a variety of other groups. The presentation topics are as current as today's headlines. Our speakers are activist members or members of the Board of Directors of the Monterey County Chapter of the ACLU. Speakers talk about current cases and controversies or about the general work and history of the ACLU -- whatever civil liberties issue you select.

Possible topics include:

• Censorship
• Employee Rights
• Racial Profiling
• Immigrants' Rights
• Post 9/11 Civil Rights
• Hate Crimes/Hate Speech
• Rights of Minorities and Women
• Rights of Persons with Disabilities
• Civil Liberties and Sexual Orientation
• Freedom of Press, Speech, Assembly
• Freedom of Choice: Reproductive Freedom
• Inside the ACLU: The Cases We Take and Why
• Understanding the ACLU: History/Background