1923-1940 | 1940-1960 | 1960-1980 | 1980-present
One of the hard-learned lessons of the ACLU's history is that no battle ever stays won. In the 1980's, even as we sought to extend the protections of the law still further, we were already witnessing the beginning of a rollback of civil rights and civil liberties. Women's reproductive rights were under severe attack and the emerging AIDS and drug crises were met with restrictions of Fourth Amendment protections against search and seizure, and new assaults on the broader principles of privacy and equal protection.
But the ACLU/SC fought back, persuading a federal judge to rule that the San Luis Obispo school district could not keep five-year-old Ryan Thomas out of school because he had AIDS.
Responding to a dire homelessness crisis, we successfully challenged the practice of denying shelter to people who lacked "proper identification," and forced LA County to modify its "sixty-day rule," which allowed it to suspend all general relief for two months for minor eligibility-rule infractions. In 1983 we affirmed our affiliate's longstanding commitment to economic rights by drafting an "Economic Bill of Rights" declaring that "every person in the United States who desires to work and is capable of working should be assured of a basic standard of living."
In the 1990's, we fought to prevent further cutbacks in the areas of affirmative action and immigrant rights. We sought to stem the tide of censorship of music lyrics, of television, of the Internet. And we continued our longstanding commitment to economic justice, successfully challenging key provisions of the so-called Welfare Reform Act of 1996.
Walt Whitman once said, "Democracy is a great word, whose history remains unwritten,because that history has yet to be enacted." For the past eighty-five years the ACLU/SC has worked to enact the history of democracy here in Southern California — an endeavor that has met with resistance from some and garnered respect from many. In the 1930s, Police Captain William Hynes "joked" about throwing ACLU lawyers out of ten-story windows, but we are still here, as are the principles — freedom, equality, and the right not to be defenestrated — for which we stand.
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Criminal Justice
Sentencing Reform: Balance Our Priorities
Disability Rights
Veterans’ Attorneys Respond to VA Master Plan
Educational Equality
Revised LAPD Protocol to Reduce Curfew Tickets
Freedom of Speech
VA Violated Free Speech Rights of Veteran
Immigrant Rights
ACLU/SC Sues ICE Over Failure to Grant Fee Waiver for FOIA Request
Jails Project
LGBT Equality
Seth Walsh Student Rights Project Home
Privacy Rights
Court Affirms Right to Privacy for HIV-Positive Adult Film Performer
Religious Liberty
FBI Targets American Muslims Solely for Practicing Religion
