American Civil Liberties Union Developments in the United States
American Civil Liberties Union Developments
By the 1990s, the ACLU had argued more cases before the U.S. Supreme Court than any other entity except the U.S. Department of Justice. During the 1990s the organization became increasingly involved in labor-management issues that violated an individual’s right to privacy. The ACLU fought to prohibit company policies requiring workers to take drug tests and campaigned for legislation to regulate electronic surveillance in the workplace. The ACLU also worked to protect the rights of people with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS); litigated against censorship in literature, music, and art exhibits; and lobbied to abolish the death penalty. Other issues that the ACLU focused its efforts on in the 1990s included children’s rights, education reform, lesbian and gay rights, immigrants’ rights, national security, privacy and technology, prisoners’ rights, reproductive freedom, voting rights, and women’s rights.
Following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States, the ACLU became especially active in ensuring that the U.S. government’s “war on terrorism” did not infringe on civil liberties. Soon after the attacks, Congress passed the Patriot Act to help law enforcement agencies investigate terrorist networks within the United States. However, the ACLU criticized a number of its provisions, including one that allowed the government to inspect a person’s library, bank, and medical records without a judicial determination that the person was likely committing a crime.
The ACLU also played a prominent role in challenging the government’s detention of American citizens and others without charging them with a crime or providing them access to a lawyer. Hundreds of these detainees were held at the U.S. naval station at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. An ACLU suit forced the government to release thousands of internal records documenting the abusive treatment of detainees at Guantánamo Bay. (1)
In this Section: American Civil Liberties Union, American Civil Liberties Union Early Years, American Civil Liberties Union in the 1930S and 1940S, American Civil Liberties Union in the 1950s and 1960s, American Civil Liberties Union in the 1970s and 1980s and American Civil Liberties Union Developments.
Leave a Reply