By 1964, membership had risen to 80, 000, and the ACLU was directly involved in a major expansion of civil liberties.

After many changes back and forth, the defense team consisted of Darrow, ACLU attorney Arthur Garfield Hays, and Dudley Field Malone, an international divorce lawyer who had worked at the State Department.

Though the ACLU had taken on the trial as a cause, in the wake of Scopes ’ conviction, they were unable to find any volunteers to take on the Butler law and by 1932, the ACLU gave up.

Though none of the men were found guilty by the all-white jury ( as blacks had been disfranchised under the South Carolina constitution, they could not serve on juries ), Thurmond was congratulated by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ( NAACP ) and the American Civil Liberties Union ( ACLU ) for his efforts.

Although the American Civil Liberties Union ( ACLU ) had urged the Supreme Court to require the mandatory presence of a " station-house " lawyer at all police interrogations, Warren refused to go that far, or to even include a suggestion that immediately demanding a lawyer would be in the suspect's best interest.

When the ACLU claimed the government sponsorship of a distinctly Christian symbol violated separation of church and state, the sponsors of the fifty-year-old Christmas celebration, Pageant of Peace, who had an exclusive permit from the Interior Department for all events on the Ellipse, responded that the nativity scene was a reminder of America's spiritual heritage.

Finally in 2007, the Taylor ruling was reversed for lack of evidence by the Supreme Court, which said that the ACLU had no evidence that its own communications had been intercepted without a warrant, and therefore the ACLU did not have a basis to challenge the legality of the wiretaps.

The majority decision denied that the ACLU had the standing to bring the case to court.

The American Civil Liberties Union ( ACLU ) got involved to protect the web sites, seeking a restraining order against Jones and then a permanent injunction against him, alleging that he had violated the constitutional rights of the web site creators.

The American Civil Liberties Union ( ACLU ) had been searching for a " perfect test case " to challenge anti-sodomy laws, and Hardwick's cause presented the one they were looking for.

In Reno v. ACLU, though, the Supreme Court held that this was not case law justifying the CDA, as the FCC's sanctions were not criminal punishments ; and TV and radio broadcasts, " as a matter of history, had ' received the most limited First Amendment protection ' … in large part because warnings could not adequately protect the listener from unexpected program content ", as opposed to Internet users, who must take " a series of affirmative steps " to access explicit material.

In Reno v. ACLU, however, the Court ruled that the " time, place, and manner regulation " that Renton had enacted was not similar to the CDA, which was " a content-based blanket restriction on speech ".

Parts of the earlier and much broader Communications Decency Act had been struck down as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1997 ( Reno v. ACLU ); COPA was a direct response to that decision, narrowing the range of material covered.

Foster and Richey went to court to defend the program and pledged that violations cited by the ACLU had been remedied.

( 319 U. S. 427 ( 1943 )) In the Supreme Court, Buchalter was represented by Arthur Garfield Hays, a leader of the trial bar who was general counsel for the ACLU and had a private practice consisting of wealthy, powerful clients.

In addition to members of Congress, the proposed bill had many high-profile supporters, including the American Civil Liberties Union ( ACLU ), the NAACP and a number of groups in the Jewish community.

Because of the secrecy rules involved, the government would not let the ACLU disclose they had even filed a case for nearly a month, after which they were permitted to release a heavily redacted version of the complaint ( shown right ).

This was 3 years after Merill won a ' liberty award ' from the ACLU, which had to present the award to an empty chair at the time.

The American Civil Liberties Union ( ACLU ) got involved to protect the web sites, seeking a restraining order, followed by a permanent injunction, against Jones, alleging that he had violated the constitutional rights of the web site creators.

The ACLU had previously challenged the validity of the ballot initiative by asserting that a constitutional obligation to advertise the amendment had not been satisfied.

Senator Boxer's 2006 decision to withdraw a " certificate of accomplishment " originally given to former CAIR official Basim Elkarra on grounds of suspicions about the organization's background " provoked an outcry from organizations that vouch for the group's advocacy, including the ACLU and the California Council of Churches.

The American Civil Liberties Union ( ACLU ) offered to defend anyone accused of teaching the theory of evolution in defiance of the Butler Act.

Scopes ' involvement in the so-called Monkey Trial came about after the American Civil Liberties Union ( ACLU ) announced that it would finance a test case challenging the confstitutionality of the Butler Act if they could find a Tennessee teacher willing to act as a defendant.

* The government's unsuccessful defense of the Communications Decency Act, which culminated in the Supreme Court decision Reno v. ACLU.

In 1997, in the landmark cyberlaw case of Reno v. ACLU, the United States Supreme Court struck the anti-indecency provisions of the Act.

The ACLU was dominated by anti-communist leaders during the 1940s, and did not enthusiastically support persons indicted under the Smith Act.

In April 1996, Donaldson testified on JDI ’ s behalf in the case ACLU v. Reno, which challenged the constitutionality of the Communications Decency Act ( CDA ).

Jane Harman was criticized by the American Civil Liberties Union ( ACLU ) for submitting HR 1955, the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007, which passed in the House 404-6.

In a memo signed by General Sanchez and later acquired by the ACLU through a Freedom of Information Act request, techniques were authorized to interrogate prisoners, included " environmental manipulation " such as making a room hot or cold or using an " unpleasant smell ", isolating a prisoner, disrupting normal sleep patterns and " convincing the detainee that individuals from a country other than the United States are interrogating him.

Matrix came under scrutiny by the American Civil Liberties Union ( ACLU ) which made Freedom of Information Act requests in Florida, where the program originated, and to the federal government on 30 October 2003.

In a 9-0 decision, the Supreme Court extended the full protection of the First Amendment to the Internet in Reno v. ACLU, a decision which struck down portions of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, a law that prohibited " indecent " online communication ( that is, non-obscene material protected by the First Amendment ).

According to government secrecy rules ( the National Security Letter provision, 2709 of the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act, ) the ACLU still could not disclose which ISP was served with the request to produce documents.

Documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act by the ACLU indicate that officers from the Colorado JTTF have been collecting personal information on nonviolent protesters.

The Communications Decency Act was ruled unconstitutional in large part by the Supreme Court on June 26, 1997 in a joint ACLU / EFF suit.

In addition, Section 2709 of the Act, which allowed the FBI to issue National Security Letters ( NSLs ) to Internet service providers ( ISPs ) ordering them to disclose records about their customers, was ruled unconstitutional under the First and Fourth Amendments in ACLU v. Ashcroft ( 2004 ).

* Government Documents -- searchable ACLU archive of documents released under court order via the Freedom of Information Act, featuring recently declassified documents about reported Guantanamo Quran desecration

The ACLU, in their July 27, 2005 ' Letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee Regarding the Violence Against Women Act of 2005, S. 1197 ' stated that " VAWA is one of the most effective pieces of legislation enacted to end domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking.

When the ACLU was founded in 1920, its focus was on freedom of speech, primarily for anti-war protesters.

The ACLU was involved in the Miranda case, which addressed misconduct by police during interrogations ; and in the New York Times case which established new protections for newspapers reporting on government activities.

In the twenty-first century, the ACLU has fought the teaching of creationism in public schools and challenged some provisions of anti-terrorism legislation as infringing on civil liberties.

The leadership of the ACLU does not always agree on policy decisions: Differences of opinion within the ACLU leadership have sometimes grown into major debates.

In 2005, there was internal conflict about whether or not a gag rule should be imposed on ACLU employees to prevent publication of internal disputes.

* ACLU site on Intelligent Design

After the September 11 attacks in 2001, Falwell said on Pat Robertson's The 700 Club, " I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America.

Notably, civil liberties organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union ( ACLU ) have stated that racial profiling is a form of discrimination, stating, " Discrimination based on race, ethnicity, religion, nationality or on any other particular identity undermines the basic human rights and freedoms to which every person is entitled.

However, on July 20, 1990, with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union ( ACLU ).

On July 31, 2010, Bright Eyes teamed up with the American Civil Liberties Union ( ACLU ) of Nebraska to put on a concert for equality in Omaha, Nebraska.

The concert raised money for a federal lawsuit the ACLU filed against the city of Fremont, Nebraska for an ordinance the city passed on June 21, 2010 banning the hiring of or the rental of properties to illegal immigrants.

The ACLU and the Committee on the Bill of Rights of the American Bar Association filed amicus curiae briefs.

In 1985, the United States Supreme Court ruled in ACLU v. Scarsdale, New York that nativity scenes on public lands violate separation of church and state statutes unless they comply with " The Reindeer Rule "— a regulation calling for equal opportunity for non-religious symbols, such as reindeer.

This principle was further clarified in 1989, when the Supreme Court in County of Allegheny v. ACLU ruled that a crèche placed on the grand staircase of the Allegheny County Courthouse in Pittsburgh, PA violated the Establishment Clause, because the " principal or primary effect " of the display was to advance religion.

In a Catholic Education Resource Center article, he shared his belief on the separation of church and state: " Groups like the ACLU, with the acquiescence if not collusion of the courts, are actively promoting a jurisprudence of anti-religious discrimination.