The Bill of Rights and the California Constitution would only be well-meaning promises -- if people did not fight to protect them. And the American Civil Liberties Union is the only national organization dedicated to defending and expanding the civil liberties of all people.



The national ACLU is comprised of affiliates in each state. The ACLU of Northern California, based in San Francisco, is the affiliate that works to protect civil liberties in this region of the country. The ACLU-NC was founded in 1934 during the General Strike to fight against police abuse of striking longshoremen. Today, we are at the forefront of every civil liberties battle in the state -- from the rights of immigrants and reproductive rights to abolition of the death penalty and the rights of lesbians and gay men.



The ACLU uses a dynamic mixture of strategies to accomplish our goal of ensuring constitutional rights and freedoms.



In addition to the direct litigation for which the ACLU has been known over the past seven decades, we engage in public education, inform the media, educate and lobby legislators, organize grass-roots activists to enliven the public debate and disseminate information through our membership and volunteer chapters.