Regardless...the ACLU has no fucking right to post pics....just like u have no right to know what the SEALS,TF 16/TF 19, TFO..CAG and a million other units do to defend this country. The ACLU doesn't think of 2nd order effects and further has no legal authority to ask for pics pertaining to a foreign national, yet the libs caved and here we are. I redeploy to Iraq at the end of Nov. If the ACLU actions cost the lives of any of my soldiers because of massive increases in violence, I'll come back and skin the fuckers. The ACLU does nothing to protect this country or anybodies civil rights. They protect minority views against the overwhelming majority on any given issue and force bullshit down our throats.
Since its founding, the ACLU has been involved in many cases. A few of the most significant are discussed here.1920–1960
In 1925, the ACLU persuaded John T. Scopes to defy Tennessee's anti-evolution law in a court test. Clarence Darrow, a member of the ACLU National Committee, headed Scopes' legal team. The prosecution, led by William Jennings Bryan, contended that the Bible should be interpreted literally in teaching creationism in school. The ACLU lost the case and Scopes was fined $100. The Tennessee Supreme Court later upheld the law but overturned the conviction on a technicality.[76][77]
In 1954, the ACLU filed an amicus brief in the case of Brown v. Board of Education, which led to the ban on racial segregation in U.S. public schools.[78]
1960–2000
In 1967, the ACLU successfully argued against state bans on interracial marriage, in the case of Loving v. Virginia.[79]
In 1973, the ACLU was the first major national organization to call for the impeachment of President Richard Nixon, giving as reasons the Nixon administration's violations of civil liberties.[11] That same year, the ACLU was involved in the cases of Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, in which the Supreme Court held that the constitutional right of privacy extended to women seeking abortions.
In 1977, the ACLU filed suit against the Village of Skokie, Illinois, seeking an injunction against the enforcement of three town ordinances outlawing Neo-Nazi parades and demonstrations. Skokie, Illinois at the time had a majority population of Jews, totaling 40,000 of 70,000 citizens. A federal district court struck down the ordinances in a decision eventually affirmed by the Supreme Court. The ACLU's action in this case led to a rift between the Jewish Defense League and the ACLU. According to David Hamlin, executive director of the Illinois ACLU, "...the Chicago office which chose to provide legal counsel to neo-Nazis who have been planning to march in Skokie, has lost about 25% of its membership and nearly one-third of its budget." 30,000 ACLU members resigned in protest.[80][81][82] In his February 23, 1978 decision overturning the town ordinances, US District Court Judge Bernard M. Decker described the principle involved in the case as follows: "It is better to allow those who preach racial hatred to expend their venom in rhetoric rather than to be panicked into embarking on the dangerous course of permitting the government to decide what its citizens may say and hear ... The ability of American society to tolerate the advocacy of even hateful doctrines ... is perhaps the best protection we have against the establishment of any Nazi-type regime in this country."[83]
In the 1980s, the ACLU filed suit to challenge the Arkansas 1981 creationism statute, which required the teaching in public schools of the biblical account of creation as a scientific alternative to evolution. The law was declared unconstitutional by a Federal District Court.[84]
In 1982, the ACLU became involved in a case involving the distribution of child pornography (New York v. Ferber).[85] In an amicus brief, the ACLU argued that the law in question "has criminalized the dissemination, sale or display of constitutionally protected non-obscene materials which portray juveniles in sexually related roles," while arguing that child pornography deemed obscene under the Miller test deserved no constitutional protection and could be banned.[86]
2000–present
In November 2000, 15 African American residents of Hearne, Texas were indicted on drug charges after being arrested in a series of "drug sweeps". The ACLU filed a class action lawsuit, Kelly v. Paschall, on their behalf, alleging that the arrests were unlawful. The ACLU contended that 15 percent of Hearne's male African American population aged 18 to 34 were arrested based on the "uncorroborated word of a single unreliable confidential informant coerced by police to make cases." On May 11, 2005, the ACLU and Robertson County announced a confidential settlement of the lawsuit, an outcome which "both sides stated that they were satisfied with." The District Attorney dismissed the charges against the plaintiffs of the suit.[87] The upcoming film American Violet depicts this case.[88]
In a 2002 letter, the ACLU stated that it "opposes child pornography that uses real children in its depictions," but that material "which is produced without using real children, and is not otherwise obscene, is protected under the First Amendment."[89]
During the 2004 trial regarding allegations of Rush Limbaugh's drug abuse, the ACLU argued that his privacy should not have been compromised by allowing law enforcement examination of his medical records.[90]
In June 2004, the ACLU received numerous phone calls from angry parents after the Dover Area School District in Dover, Pennsylvania passed a curriculum change requiring that its high school biology students be read a one-minute statement saying that the theory of evolution is not fact and mentioning intelligent design as an alternative theory. Believing that the school was promoting a religious idea in the classroom and violating the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, several Dover parents called the ACLU to discuss a possible lawsuit against the school. The ACLU, along with Americans United for Separation of Church and State and Pepper Hamilton, LLP, went on to represent the parents, the plaintiffs, in Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District. After a more than 40-day trial, Judge John E. Jones III ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, finding that intelligent design is not science and permanently forbidding the Dover school system from teaching intelligent design in science classes.[91]
In January 2006, the ACLU filed a lawsuit, ACLU v. NSA, in a federal district court in Michigan, challenging government spying in the NSA warrantless surveillance controversy.[92] On August 17, 2006, that court ruled that the warrantless wiretapping program is unconstitutional and ordered it ended immediately.[93] However, the order is stayed pending an appeal. The Bush administration did suspend the program while the appeal was being heard.[94] In February 2008, the US Supreme Court "turned down an appeal from the [ACLU] to let it pursue a lawsuit against the program that began shortly after the Sept. 11 terror attacks."[95]
The ACLU and other organizations also filed separate lawsuits around the country against telecommunications companies. The ACLU filed a lawsuit in Illinois (Terkel v. AT&T) which was dismissed because of the State Secrets Privilege[96] and two others in California requesting injunctions against AT&T and Verizon.[97] On August 10, 2006, the lawsuits against the telecommunications companies were transferred to a federal judge in San Francisco.[98]
After the town of Hazleton, Pennsylvania passed an ordinance to punish landlords who rented to illegal immigrants and businesses who hired illegal immigrants, the ACLU and Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund sued Hazleton, saying the ordinance was unconstitutional.[99][100] On July 26, 2007, a federal court agreed and struck down the Hazleton ordinance; Hazleton's mayor promised to appeal the decision.[101]
In 2008, the ACLU stated that it would represent defendants arrested in Flint, Michigan for disorderly conduct when sagging (wearing pants low enough to show underwear), partly on the basis of unconstitutional racial profiling.[102]
After the City of Indianapolis, Indiana began cracking down on when, where and how homeless persons can solicit donations, the ACLU sued Indianapolis, claiming the city's police unconstitutionally forced homeless persons to produce identification without probable cause.[103]
