American Civil Liberties Union

Defend the rights of all people nationwide

With immigrant rights, trans justice, reproductive freedom, and more at risk, we’re in courts and communities across the country to protect everyone’s rights — and we need you with us.

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Spotlight

Free Mahmoud Khalil

Trump's administration illegally arrested a lawful permanent resident in retaliation for his advocacy. This won't go unchecked.

Send A Message

Save The Department Of Education

We must demand that our members of Congress take action and stop Donald Trump from dismantling the Department of Education.

Send a Message

A Letter From Mahmoud Khalil

Khalil, who was unlawfully arrested in retaliation for his advocacy, details this violation of his free speech rights.

Read His Words

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Keep DOGE Out of Our Data

Tell Congress it must step up and check this violation of our rights.

Use Your Voice

The ACLU dares to create a more perfect union — beyond one person, party, or side. Our mission is to realize this promise of the United States Constitution for all and expand the reach of its guarantees.

Issues

Learn about what's happening across the most pressing civil liberties issues of our time, and what you can do.

Systemic Equality

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Since our nation’s founding, discriminatory policies and laws have created an unequal system in which Black communities have had their civil rights and liberties denied and have been systemically locked out of opportunities in education, housing, employment, and more.

Through our Systemic Equality agenda, we will use nationwide litigation, advocacy, and public education to advance laws and policies rooted in racial equity and end discriminatory policies, laws, and practices that have an outsized impact on Black communities.

Help us in our fight to ensure all people have equal access to housing, voting rights, education, and more by learning more, pledging your support, or donating. When we have full and equal access to education, jobs, housing, voting rights and more, better futures are possible.

News and Commentary

News & Commentary

Civil Liberties

Five State and Local Entities Safeguarding Our Civil Rights

Governors, attorneys general, mayors, and other local officials are starting to vocally say no to President Donald Trump’s radical and dangerous agenda. Here’s why their roles are so crucial for our democracy and the state of civil liberties today.

Voting Rights

Anniversary of ‘Bloody Sunday’ Marks Continued Fight for Voting Rights

Selma Jubilee revelers annual trek across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Alabama reminds us why we can never stop advocating for enfranchisement for Black Americans.

Racial Justice

Trump's Attempt to Deride NLRB Won't Stop Power of Collective Actions

While the NLRB’s reopening is encouraging, workers must rely on each other to fulfill the promise of collective action.

In the Courts

For more than one hundred years, ACLU lawyers have been at the center of one history-making court case after another, participating in more Supreme Court cases than any other private organization. With attorneys nationwide, we handle thousands of cases each year on behalf of clients whose rights have been violated.

Fighting For Reproductive Freedom

People deserve the freedom to make their own medical decisions — but extreme politicians want to take that power away and deny people essential healthcare like abortion and birth control. The ACLU will never stop fighting to ensure that every person can maker their own decisions around pregnancy.

Fighting For Reproductive Freedom

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all court cases

Fighting Trump

During the first Trump administration, we took over 430 legal actions.

Fighting Back Against Voter Suppression in Georgia
Following record turnout in recent elections, Georgia legislators passed a voter suppression law designed to make it harder for voters, especially voters of color, to cast a ballot. We’re suing.

Defending Student Free Speech
Brandi Levy was just blowing off steam off campus when she posted an expletive message on Snapchat critical of her school and cheer team. She was suspended from her cheer team, but alongside the ACLU she sued to defend student free speech. We took the case all the way to the Supreme Court – and won.

Protecting Abortion Access in Florida
On behalf of several abortion providers, we are fighting against Florida's senseless and harmful law that bans abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy and threatens to imprison doctors who provide care beyond that point.

our history

1920

In its first year, the ACLU challenged the Palmer Raids, protecting immigrants and trade union members.

1942

The ACLU stood almost alone in denouncing the federal government’s internment of more than 110,000 Japanese Americans in concentration camps.

1967

The ACLU represented an interracial couple in the landmark Supreme Court case, Loving v. Virginia. The court ruled that state bans on interracial marriage were unconstitutional.

1978

The ACLU took a controversial stand for free speech by defending a Nazi group that wanted to march through the Chicago suburb of Skokie—where many Holocaust survivors lived.

2015

The ACLU won a landmark Supreme Court ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, affirming the constitutional right of same-sex couples to marry.

2018

In a victory for privacy, the Supreme Court ruled in an ACLU case, Carpenter v. United States, that people’s sensitive cell phone location data is protected by the Fourth Amendment, requiring the government get a warrant to access it.

today

We have over 1,700 staffers in every state, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico fighting for people's constitutional rights.

Careers

Full-time positions and internships

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Financial Reports

Annual reports on governance

FOIA Collections

Public records and information

On the Ground

From signing petitions to organizing on the ground, millions of ACLU activists are helping defend our rights.