The ACLU’s mission is to fight civil liberties violations wherever and whenever they occur. Most of our clients are ordinary people who have experienced an injustice and have decided to fight back. An employee is discriminated against because of her race, gender or physical disability. A high school student is unable to read a book about controversial subject matter because it has been removed from the school library. A gay person is denied the right to adopt a child solely because of his sexual orientation. A woman’s right to choose to have an abortion is undermined by restrictive state laws. A black motorist is stopped by the police based on a racially biased “profile.” These people turn to the ACLU for help in vindicating their rights and the rights of us all.



Freedom is Why We're HereThe American system of government is founded on two counterbalancing principles: first, that the majority of the people governs, through democratically elected representatives; and second, that the power even of a democratic majority must be limited, to ensure individual rights. Majority power is limited by the Constitution’s Bill of Rights, which consists of the first ten amendments ratified in 1791, along with the three post-Civil War amendments (the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth) and the Nineteenth Amendment (women’s suffrage), adopted in 1920. The mission of the ACLU is to preserve all of these protections and guarantees.