1920 - Palmer Raids
In its first year, the ACLU championed the targets of Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer including politically radical immigrants. We also supported the right of trade unionists to hold meetings and organize, and we secured the release of hundreds of activists imprisoned for their antiwar activities.
1925 - The Scopes Case
When biology teacher John T. Scopes was charged with violating a Tennessee ban on the teaching of evolution, the ACLU was there and secured celebrated attorney Clarence Darrow for his defense.
1942 - Fighting the Internment of Japanese Americans
The ACLU stood almost alone in denouncing the federal government's internment of more than 110,000 Japanese Americans in concentration camps.
1954 - Brown v. Board of Education
The ACLU, having joined the NAACP in the legal battle for equal education, celebrated a major victory when the Supreme Court declared that racially segregated schools were in violation of the 14th Amendment.
1969 - Protecting Free Speech
In Tinker v. Des Moines, the ACLU won a major Supreme Court victory on behalf of public school students suspended for wearing black armbands in protest of the Vietnam War, a major First Amendment victory.
1973 - Reproductive Rights
After decades of struggle, the Supreme Court held — in Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton — that the constitutional right to privacy encompasses a woman's right to decide whether she will terminate or continue a pregnancy. But the fight still continues, as the ACLU fends off new attacks to erode women's right to reproductive choice.
1978 - Taking a Stand for Free Speech in Skokie
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. The notoriety of the case cost the ACLU dearly as members left in droves, but to many it was our finest hour, and it has come to represent our unwavering commitment to principle.
1981 - Creationism in Arkansas
Fifty-six years after the Scopes trial, the ACLU 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. That fight continues today as we take on the "intelligent design" movement with cases like our 2005 victory in Dover, Pennsylvania.
1997 - Internet Free Speech
In ACLU v. Reno, the Supreme Court struck down the 1996 Communications Decency Act, which censored the Internet by broadly banning "indecent" speech. Since then, Congress has passed numerous versions of the Child Online Protection Act (COPA), a federal law that would criminalize constitutionally protected speech on the Internet. Each time the law has been challenged by the ACLU and declared unconstitutional.
2001 to Present - Keeping America Safe and Free
Since 9/11 terrorist attacks, the ACLU has been working vigorously to oppose policies that sacrifice our fundamental freedoms in the name of national security. From working to fix the Patriot Act to challenging NSA warrantless spying, our advocates are working to restore fundamental freedoms lost as a result of the Bush administration policies that expanded the government's power to invade privacy, imprison people without due process, and punish dissent.
2003 - Equal Treatment for Lesbians and Gay Men
In Lawrence v. Texas, the U.S. Supreme Court accepted the ACLU's argument that the court had been wrong when it ruled in Bowers v. Hardwick that the right to privacy did not cover lesbian and gay relationships. It struck down a Texas law that made same-sex intimacy a crime, expanding the privacy rights of all Americans and promoting the right of lesbians and gay men to equality.
2003 to 2009 - Exposing Torture
After a five-year legal battle, the ACLU's Freedom of Information Act lawsuit compelled the release of critical documents detailing the extent of the Bush torture program, including long-secret legal memos justifying waterboarding and other abuses and an Inspector General's report highlighting CIA abuses. The ACLU is leading the demand for full accountability for those who authorized or condoned torture.
2005 - Keeping Religion Out of the Science Classroom
In Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, the ACLU represented a group of parents who challenged a public school district requirement for teachers to present so-called "intelligent design" as an alternative to evolution in high school biology classes. In a decision that garnered nationwide attention, a district judge ruled that "intelligent design" is not science and teaching it violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
2009 - Protecting the Right to Privacy
In Safford Unified School District v. Redding, the Supreme Court ruled that school officials violated the constitutional rights of a 13-year-old Arizona girl when they strip searched her based on a classmate's uncorroborated accusation.
2014 - Striking Down DOMA
In US v. Windsor, we represented Edie Windsor’s challenge to the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). Under that statute, the federal government did not recognize Edie’s marriage to her partner, Thea, and taxed the inheritance she received when Thea passed away (treating them as strangers). The Supreme Court ruled for Windsor and found that Section 3 of DOMA was unconstitutional. The federal government could not discriminate against married gay and lesbian couples for the purposes of determining federal benefits and protections. This decision represented a tipping point in the fight for marriage equality.
2019 - Making Sure Everyone is Counted in the US Census
In Department of Commerce v. NYIC, we challenged the Trump administration’s plan to put a citizenship question on the 2020 Census. Such a question would have deleterious effects on counting accuracy in immigrant communities and put federal funding for these communities at risk. The Supreme Court ruled in our favor, finding the Trump administration's stated reasoning for the question “contrived.” The administration subsequently abandoned efforts to reinstate the question through other means.
2018 - Get a Warrant to Check Phone Location Data
This consequential privacy ruling found that the government must seek a warrant before they can seize the sensitive location information stored on a cellphone. The Supreme Court ruled that the government cannot obtain this crucially sensitive data without judicial oversight. This decision expands privacy protections in the digital era and lays the groundwork for similar protections on other data generated and stored by new technologies.
2018 - Supreme Court Upholds Basic Principles of Nondiscrimination
In a narrow ruling, the Supreme Court found for a bakery that had refused to sell a cake to a same-sex couple and reversed the decision made by the Colorado Civil Rights Commission, which had found that they had discriminated when denying service to a same-sex couple. However, this case did affirm basic nondiscrimination principles and did not outright create an explicit right to discriminate against LGBTQ individuals.
2020 - Striking Down LGBTQ Discrimination in the Workplace
In this landmark case, the Supreme Court found that firing someone because they were LGBTQ was discriminatory, and in doing so, secured another important right in the ongoing struggle for LGBTQ equality. We represented two plaintiffs, Aimee Stephens and Don Zarda, in the trio of cases that composed this decision. The ACLU continues to call on Congress to pass the Equality Act and close any gaps in civil rights protections for LGBTQ Americans.
2021 - Defending Students’ Protected Speech
We litigated a First Amendment challenge to a Pennsylvania’s school district’s rules governing speech made by students outside of school. This case arose when a school district kicked a student-athlete who had made a disparaging post on Snapchat off her cheerleading team. The Supreme Court found the plaintiff’s social media posts to be protected speech, especially since it was posted off school-grounds and not during a school-related activity, and it also found that the district had violated her First Amendment rights.
To commemorate our centennial year and document the history of the ACLU, we commissioned a series of essays exploring critical moments throughout the organization’s history. We take a look at those moments of extraordinary success, and those moments when we fell short, or failed. These essays come from those who know these moments best, either through their direct participation as former ACLU leaders, their personal connection to the issues, or their historical expertise in civil liberties (and in some cases, all three). The series traces the story of the ACLU from its founding, by the people who helped shape those events. In doing so, it also tells the story of America.
Fighting in Courtrooms Across America to Defend Your Rights
- For over 100 years, the ACLU has participated in more Supreme Court cases than any other private organization.
- Whether we're standing on principle before the highest court in the land or in state and federal courthouses across America, the ACLU wins far more often than we lose.
- For nine decades the ACLU has been at the center of one critical, history-making court case after another.
- Our communications and public education staff employ a wide range of strategies to educate the general public on the critical civil liberties facing our nation.
