Misplaced Pages

#937062

136-521: Former ASPIRA club members, or ASPIRANTES, as they are known, include ACLU 's Anthony Romero , former Bronx Borough President and New York City democratic mayoral nominee Fernando Ferrer , Illinois politician Billy Ocasio and actor Jimmy Smits . ASPIRA was founded in New York City in 1961 by Dr. Antonia Pantoja to combat the exorbitant dropout rate among Puerto Rican high school youth. It expanded nationally in 1968 as ASPIRA of America—today known as

272-773: A 501(c)(4) corporation–called ACLU–which is entitled to lobby. Both organizations share staff and offices. ACLU affiliates are the basic unit of the ACLU's organization and engage in litigation, lobbying, and public education. For example, in 2020, the ACLU's New Jersey chapter argued 26 cases before the New Jersey Supreme Court , about one-third of the total cases heard in that court. They sent over 50,000 emails to officials or agencies and had 28 full-time staff. A leaked ACLU memo from June 2018 said that speech that can "inflict serious harms" and "impede progress toward equality" may be

408-548: A social media policy that bars workers from disparaging Aspira of Pennsylvania on social media. In August 2013, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled in favor of the teachers and found that Olney's principal and assistant principals had interrogated and threatened teachers. Olney High School and John Stetson both returned to the School District of Philadelphia and their faculties were absorbed into

544-487: A "unitary trial" procedure in which the jury was asked to return a verdict of guilt or innocence and, simultaneously, determine whether the defendant would be punished by death or life imprisonment. The last pre- Furman execution was that of Luis Monge on June 2, 1967. In a 5–4 decision, the Supreme Court struck down the impositions of the death penalty in each of the consolidated cases as unconstitutional in violation of

680-399: A barrage of local ordinances that banned screenings deemed immoral or obscene. Even public health films portraying pregnancy and birth were banned, as was Life magazine's April 11, 1938, issue, which included photos of the birth process. The ACLU fought these bans but did not prevail. The Catholic Church attained increasing political influence in the 1930s; it used its influence to promote

816-517: A contentious six-hour debate – Flynn was voted off the ACLU's board. The 1940 resolution was considered by many to be a betrayal of its fundamental principles. The resolution was rescinded in 1968, and Flynn was posthumously reinstated to the ACLU in 1970. The ACLU had a decidedly mixed civil liberties record during World War II. While there were far fewer sedition prosecutions than in World War I, this did not mean that President Roosevelt

952-468: A county demanding the removal of a Ten Commandments display from its courthouse; a second Ten Commandments case in the state, in a different county, led to a $ 74,462 judgment. The State of Tennessee was required to pay $ 50,000, the State of Alabama $ 175,000, and the State of Kentucky $ 121,500, in similar Ten Commandments cases. Most of the organization's workload is performed by its local affiliates. There

1088-583: A crime." The De Jonge case marked the start of an era lasting for a dozen years, during which Roosevelt appointees (led by Hugo Black , William O. Douglas , and Frank Murphy ) established a body of civil liberties law. In 1938, Justice Harlan F. Stone wrote the famous "footnote four" in United States v. Carolene Products Co. in which he suggested that state laws which impede civil liberties would – henceforth – require compelling justification. Senator Robert F. Wagner proposed

1224-596: A due process of law for deprivation of life by any states. The Espy file , compiled by M. Watt Espy and John Ortiz Smykla, lists 15,269 people executed in the United States and its predecessor colonies between 1608 and 1991. From 1930 to 2002, there were 4,661 executions in the United States; about two-thirds of them in the first 20 years. Additionally, the United States Army executed 135 soldiers between 1916 and 1961 (the most recent). Three states abolished

1360-509: A legal aid society centered on store front offices in low-income neighborhoods. The ACLU directors rejected that proposal. Other ACLU members wanted the ACLU to shift focus into the political arena and be more willing to compromise their ideals to strike deals with politicians. The ACLU leadership also rejected this initiative. The ACLU's support of defendants with unpopular, sometimes extreme, viewpoints has produced many landmark court cases and established new civil liberties. One such defendant

1496-535: A lower priority for the organization. The ACLU opposes any effort to create a national registry of gun owners and has worked with the National Rifle Association of America to prevent a registry from being created, and it has favored protecting the right to carry guns under the 4th Amendment. The ACLU opposes state censorship of the Confederate flag . A variety of persons and organizations support

SECTION 10

#1732858882938

1632-402: A more active role in protecting civil liberties—was De Jonge v. Oregon , in which a communist labor organizer was arrested for calling a meeting to discuss unionization. The ACLU attorney Osmond Fraenkel , working with International Labor Defense , defended De Jonge in 1937 and won a major victory when the Supreme Court ruled that "peaceable assembly for lawful discussion cannot be made

1768-745: A new name, the American Civil Liberties Union. Although a handful of other organizations in the United States at that time focused on civil rights, such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ( NAACP ) and Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the ACLU was the first that did not represent a particular group of persons or a single theme. Like the CLB, the NAACP pursued litigation to work on civil rights, including efforts to overturn

1904-570: A newspaper from publishing, simply because the newspaper had a reputation for being scandalous. The late 1930s saw the emergence of a new era of tolerance in the United States. National leaders hailed the Bill of Rights , particularly as it protected minorities, as the essence of democracy. The 1939 Supreme Court decision in Hague v. Committee for Industrial Organization affirmed the right of communists to promote their cause. Even conservative elements, such as

2040-541: A personal friend of Luke E. Hart , the then–Supreme Advocate and future Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus , offered to join forces with the Knights to challenge the law. The Knights of Columbus pledged an immediate $ 10,000 to fight the law and any additional funds necessary to defeat it. The case became known as Pierce v. Society of Sisters , a United States Supreme Court decision that significantly expanded coverage of

2176-482: A prisoner between 1872 and 1984. Other states which abolished the death penalty for murder before Gregg v. Georgia include Minnesota in 1911, Vermont in 1964, Iowa and West Virginia in 1965, and North Dakota in 1973. Hawaii abolished the death penalty in 1948 and Alaska in 1957, both before their statehood. Puerto Rico repealed it in 1929 and the District of Columbia in 1981. Arizona and Oregon abolished

2312-522: A schism formed over whether to represent Benjamin Spock 's anti-war activism. In 1973, as the Watergate Scandal continued to unfold, leadership was initially divided over whether to call for President Nixon 's impeachment and removal from office. In 2005, there was internal conflict about whether or not a gag rule should be imposed on ACLU employees to prevent the publication of internal disputes. In

2448-729: A suit against the New York City Board of Education in 1972 that led to the ASPIRA Consent Decree. The decree, signed August 29, 1974, established the right of New York City public school students with limited English proficiency to receive bilingual education. ASPIRA's Pennsylvania affiliate was founded in 1969 and operates several community-based programs and five charter schools - Antonia Pantoja, Eugenio Maria De Hostos, Stetson Charter School, Aspira Bilingual Cyber Charter School and Olney Charter High School. Stetson and Olney are both Renaissance turnarounds - district schools for which

2584-625: A total of $ 3.3 million as of June 30, 2012. Despite this fact, the School Reform Commission (the group that controls the School District of Philadelphia) voted in May 2013 to renew the charters for Pantoja and De Hostos. During the course of their anti-union campaign at Olney, Aspira of Pennsylvania has been accused of violating the National Labor Relations Act. Specific allegations include holding unlawful interrogations of teachers,

2720-670: A town, state, or federal agency may be required to change its laws or behave differently, but not to pay monetary damages except by an explicit statutory waiver. In some cases, the law permits plaintiffs who successfully sue government agencies to collect money damages or other monetary relief. In particular, the Civil Rights Attorney's Fees Award Act of 1976 leaves the government liable in some civil rights cases. Fee awards under this civil rights statute are considered "equitable relief" rather than damages, and government entities are not immune from equitable relief. Under laws such as this,

2856-496: Is already providing representation. In addition to representing persons and organizations in lawsuits, the ACLU lobbies for policy positions established by its board of directors. The ACLU's current positions include opposing the death penalty ; supporting same-sex marriage and the right of LGBT people to adopt ; supporting reproductive rights such as birth control and abortion rights ; eliminating discrimination against women, minorities , and LGBT people; decarceration in

SECTION 20

#1732858882938

2992-414: Is an American nonprofit civil rights organization founded in 1920. ACLU affiliates are active in all 50 states, Washington, D.C. , and Puerto Rico . The ACLU provides legal assistance in cases where it considers civil liberties at risk. Legal support from the ACLU can take the form of direct legal representation or preparation of amicus curiae briefs expressing legal arguments when another law firm

3128-616: Is at least one affiliate organization in each state, as well as one in Washington, D.C. , and in Puerto Rico . California has three affiliates. The affiliates operate autonomously from the national organization; each affiliate has its own staff, executive director, board of directors, and budget. Each affiliate consists of two non-profit corporations: a 501(c)(3) corporation–called the ACLU Foundation–that does not perform lobbying, and

3264-426: Is different" jurisprudence, when it held that any indigent defendant was entitled to a court-appointed attorney in capital cases – a right that was only later extended to non-capital defendants in 1963, with Gideon v. Wainwright . In Furman v. Georgia , the U.S. Supreme Court considered a group of consolidated cases. The lead case involved an individual convicted under Georgia's death penalty statute, which featured

3400-468: The 1988 presidential election . It came up in the October 13, 1988, debate between the two presidential nominees George H. W. Bush and Michael Dukakis , when Bernard Shaw , the moderator of the debate, asked Dukakis, "Governor, if Kitty Dukakis [his wife] were raped and murdered, would you favor an irrevocable death penalty for the killer?" Dukakis replied, "No, I don't, and I think you know that I've opposed

3536-574: The American Bar Association , began to campaign for civil liberties, which were long considered to be the domain of left-leaning organizations. By 1940, the ACLU had achieved many of the goals it set in the 1920s, and many of its policies were the law of the land. In 1929, after the Scopes and Dennett victories, Baldwin perceived that there was vast, untapped support for civil liberties in the United States. Baldwin proposed an expansion program for

3672-618: The American Legion , the National Civic Federation , and Industrial Defense Association and the Allied Patriotic Societies. ACLU leadership was divided on how to challenge civil rights violations. One faction, including Baldwin, Arthur Garfield Hays , and Norman Thomas , believed that direct, militant action was the best path. Another group, including Walter Nelles and Walter Pollak , felt that lawsuits taken to

3808-595: The Communist Party USA , leading it to be the primary client of the ACLU. At the same time, the Communists were very aggressive in their tactics, often engaging in illegal conduct such as denying their party membership under oath. This led to frequent conflicts between the Communists and ACLU. Communist leaders sometimes attacked the ACLU, particularly when the ACLU defended the free speech rights of conservatives, whereas Communists tried to disrupt speeches by critics of

3944-566: The Due Process Clause in the Fourteenth Amendment . In a unanimous decision, the court held that the act was unconstitutional and that parents, not the state, had the authority to educate children as they thought best. It upheld the religious freedom of parents to educate their children in religious schools. Leaders of the ACLU were divided on the best tactics to use to promote civil liberties. Felix Frankfurter felt that legislation

4080-553: The Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution . The Supreme Court has never ruled the death penalty to be per se unconstitutional. The five justices in the majority did not produce a common opinion or rationale for their decision, however, and agreed only on a short statement announcing the result. The narrowest opinions, those of Byron White and Potter Stewart , expressed generalized concerns about

4216-492: The Garland Fund . Lucille Bernheimer Milner was cofounder of the American Civil Liberties Union. She also served for a time as Executive Secretary. During the 1920s, the ACLU's primary focus was on freedom of speech in general and speech within the labor movement particularly. Because most of the ACLU's efforts were associated with the labor movement, the ACLU itself came under heavy attack from conservative groups, such as

ASPIRA Association - Misplaced Pages Continue

4352-584: The National Labor Relations Act in 1935, which empowered workers to unionize. Ironically, after 15 years of fighting for workers' rights, the ACLU initially opposed the act (it later took no stand on the legislation) because some ACLU leaders feared the increased power the bill gave to the government. The newly formed National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) posed a dilemma for the ACLU because, in 1937, it issued an order to Henry Ford , prohibiting Ford from disseminating anti-union literature. Part of

4488-473: The National Organization for Women . The ACLU has been criticized by liberals such as when it excluded communists from its leadership ranks, when it defended Neo-Nazis , when it declined to defend Paul Robeson , or when it opposed the passage of the National Labor Relations Act . In 2014, an ACLU affiliate supported anti-Islam protesters, and in 2018 the ACLU was criticized when it supported

4624-600: The New Deal to combat the depression. ACLU leaders were of mixed opinions about the New Deal since many felt that it represented an increase in government intervention into personal affairs and because the National Recovery Administration suspended antitrust legislation. The economic policies of the New Deal leaders were often aligned with ACLU goals, but social goals were not. In particular, movies were subject to

4760-473: The School District of Philadelphia contracts the operations to ASPIRA. ASPIRA of Pennsylvania also controls a property management company, Aspira Community Enterprises, which in turn controls ACE/Dougherty LLC. The schools pay ASPIRA as the charter operator set management fees and rent. In addition, the schools also loan ASPIRA money. According to an independent audit, ASPIRA owes the publicly funded schools

4896-520: The disfranchisement of African Americans in the South that had taken place since the turn of the century. During the first decades of the ACLU, Baldwin continued as its leader. His charisma and energy attracted many supporters to the ACLU board and leadership ranks. The ACLU was directed by an executive committee and was not particularly democratic or egalitarian. New Yorkers dominated the ACLU's headquarters. Most ACLU funding came from philanthropies, such as

5032-418: The 21st state to abolish capital punishment on May 30, 2019, when its state senate overrode Governor Sununu 's veto by a vote of 16–8. Colorado became the 22nd state to abolish capital punishment when governor Jared Polis signed a repeal bill on March 23, 2020, and commuted all existing death sentences in the state to life without parole. Virginia became the 23rd state to abolish capital punishment, and

5168-402: The 501(c)(3) foundation are tax deductible, and only the 501(c)(4) group can engage in unlimited political lobbying . The ACLU is led by a president and an executive director, Deborah Archer and Anthony D. Romero , respectively, as of March 2024. The president acts as chair of the ACLU's board of directors, leads fundraising, and facilitates policy-setting. The executive director manages

5304-570: The ACLU Foundation, on average, has accounted for roughly 70% of the combined budget, and the ACLU roughly 30%. The ACLU solicits donations to its charitable foundation. The local affiliates solicit their own funding; however, some also receive funds from the national ACLU, with the distribution and amount of such assistance varying from state to state. At its discretion, the national organization provides subsidies to smaller affiliates that lack sufficient resources to be self-sustaining; for example,

5440-509: The ACLU and its state affiliates sometimes share in monetary judgments against government agencies. In 2006, the Public Expressions of Religion Protection Act sought to prevent monetary judgments in the particular case of violations of church-state separation. The ACLU has received court-awarded fees from opponents; for example, the Georgia affiliate was awarded $ 150,000 in fees after suing

5576-482: The ACLU by a major US newspaper. The ACLU continued to fight for the separation of church and state in schoolrooms, decade after decade, including the 1982 case McLean v. Arkansas and the 2005 case Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District . Baldwin was involved in a significant free speech victory of the 1920s after he was arrested for attempting to speak at a rally of striking mill workers in New Jersey. Although

ASPIRA Association - Misplaced Pages Continue

5712-460: The ACLU from Communism; opposing them were Harry F. Ward, Corliss Lamont , and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn , who rejected any political test for ACLU leadership. A bitter struggle ensued throughout 1939, and the anti-Communists prevailed in February 1940 when the board voted to prohibit anyone who supported totalitarianism from ACLU leadership roles. Ward immediately resigned, and – following

5848-488: The ACLU leadership habitually took the side of labor, and that faction supported the NLRB's action. But part of the ACLU supported Ford's right to free speech. ACLU leader Arthur Garfield Hays proposed a compromise (supporting the auto workers union, yet also endorsing Ford's right to express personal opinions), but the schism highlighted a deeper divide that would become more prominent in the years to come. The ACLU's support of

5984-410: The ACLU leadership have sometimes grown into major debates. In 1937, an internal debate erupted over whether to defend Henry Ford 's right to distribute anti-union literature. In 1939, a heated debate took place over whether to prohibit communists from serving in ACLU leadership roles. During the early 1950s and Cold War McCarthyism , the board was divided on whether to defend communists. In 1968,

6120-504: The ACLU lobbied for the passage of the Indian Reorganization Act , which restored some autonomy to Native American tribes, and established penalties for kidnapping Native American children. Although the ACLU deferred to the NAACP for litigation promoting civil liberties for African Americans, the ACLU engaged in educational efforts and published Black Justice in 1931, a report which documented institutional racism throughout

6256-754: The ACLU represents an individual or organization that promotes offensive or unpopular viewpoints, such as the Ku Klux Klan , neo-Nazis, the Nation of Islam , the North American Man/Boy Love Association , the Westboro Baptist Church or the Unite the Right rally . The ACLU's official policy is "... [we have] represented or defended individuals engaged in some truly offensive speech. We have defended

6392-509: The ACLU to broaden their freedom of speech efforts beyond labor and political speech to encompass movies, press, radio, and literature. The ACLU formed the National Committee on Freedom from Censorship in 1931 to coordinate this effort. By the early 1930s, censorship in the United States was diminishing. Two major victories in the 1930s cemented the ACLU's campaign to promote free speech. In Stromberg v. California , decided in 1931,

6528-654: The ACLU was founded – it had achieved significant success; the Supreme Court had embraced the free speech principles espoused by the ACLU, and the general public was becoming more supportive of civil rights in general. But the Great Depression brought new assaults on civil liberties; the year 1930 saw a large increase in the number of free speech prosecutions, a doubling of the number of lynchings, and all meetings of unemployed persons were banned in Philadelphia. The Franklin D. Roosevelt administration proposed

6664-449: The ACLU was mentioned several times, leading the HUAC to mention the ACLU prominently in its 1939 report. This damaged the ACLU's reputation severely, even though the report said that it could not "definitely state whether or not" the ACLU was a Communist organization. While the ACLU rushed to defend its image against allegations of being a Communist front, it also protected witnesses harassed by

6800-670: The ACLU were hostile towards Nazism and fascism and objected when the ACLU defended Nazis. The ACLU defended numerous pro-Nazi groups, defending their rights to free speech and free association. In the late 1930s, the ACLU allied itself with the Popular Front , a coalition of liberal organizations coordinated by the United States Communist Party . The ACLU benefited because affiliates from the Popular Front could often fight local civil rights battles much more effectively than

6936-425: The ACLU, focusing on police brutality, Native American rights, African American rights, censorship in the arts, and international civil liberties. The board of directors approved Baldwin's expansion plan, except for the international efforts. The ACLU played a significant role in passing the 1932 Norris–La Guardia Act , a federal law that prohibited employers from preventing employees from joining unions and stopped

SECTION 50

#1732858882938

7072-611: The ACLU. The ACLU receives thousands of grants from hundreds of charitable foundations annually. Allies of the ACLU in legal actions have included the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People , the American Jewish Congress , People for the American Way , the National Rifle Association of America , the Electronic Frontier Foundation , Americans United for Separation of Church and State and

7208-531: The ASPIRA Association. Aspira of New York operates youth development clubs, dropout prevention initiatives and after school programs which serve more than 8,000 young people each year in the five boroughs of New York City and Nassau and Suffolk counties. ASPIRA of New York, with the support of ASPIRA of America and the representation of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund , filed

7344-448: The Bible should be interpreted literally in teaching creationism in school. The ACLU lost the case, and Scopes was fined $ 100. The Tennessee Supreme Court later upheld the law. Still, it overturned the conviction on a technicality. The Scopes trial was a phenomenal public relations success for the ACLU. The ACLU became well known across America, and the case led to the first endorsement of

7480-772: The British North American colonies was carried out in 1608 on Captain George Kendall , who was executed by firing squad at the Jamestown colony for spying on behalf of the Spanish government. Executions in colonial America were also carried out by hanging . The hangman's noose was one of the various punishments the Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony applied to enforce religious and intellectual conformity on

7616-502: The CLB was on freedom of speech , primarily anti-war speech, and on supporting conscientious objectors who did not want to serve in World War I. In 1918, Crystal Eastman resigned from the organization due to health issues. After assuming sole leadership of the CLB, Baldwin insisted that the organization be reorganized. He wanted to change its focus from litigation to direct action and public education. The CLB directors concurred, and on January 19, 1920, they formed an organization under

7752-507: The District of Columbia and Puerto Rico have abolished the death penalty for all crimes. Below is a table of the states and the date that the state abolished the death penalty. Michigan became the first English-speaking territory in the world to abolish capital punishment in 1847. Although treason remained a crime punishable by the death penalty in Michigan despite the 1847 abolition, no one

7888-602: The HUAC. The ACLU was one of the few organizations to protest (unsuccessfully) against the passage of the Smith Act in 1940, which would later be used to imprison many persons who supported Communism. The ACLU defended many persons who were prosecuted under the Smith Act, including labor leader Harry Bridges . ACLU leadership was split on whether to purge its leadership of Communists. Norman Thomas , John Haynes Holmes , and Morris Ernst were anti-Communists who wanted to distance

8024-560: The Midwest, 86 in the West, and only 4 in the Northeast. No state in the Northeast has conducted an execution since Connecticut , now abolitionist, in 2005. The state of Texas alone conducted 571 executions, over 1/3 of the total; the states of Texas, Virginia (now abolitionist), and Oklahoma combined make up over half the total, with 802 executions between them. 17 executions have been conducted by

8160-466: The NLRB was a significant development for the ACLU because it marked the first time it accepted that a government agency could be responsible for upholding civil liberties. Until 1937, the ACLU felt that citizens and private organizations best upheld civil rights. Some factions in the ACLU proposed new directions for the organization. In the late 1930s, some local affiliates proposed shifting their emphasis from civil liberties appellate actions to becoming

8296-542: The NRA. Conversely, it has been criticized by conservatives such as when it argued against official prayer in public schools or when it opposed the Patriot Act . The ACLU has supported conservative figures such as Rush Limbaugh , George Wallace , Henry Ford and Oliver North as well as liberal figures such as Dick Gregory , Rockwell Kent and Benjamin Spock . Major sources of criticism are legal cases in which

SECTION 60

#1732858882938

8432-645: The New York-based ACLU. The association with the Communist Party led to accusations that the ACLU was a "Communist front", particularly because Harry F. Ward was both chairman of the ACLU and chairman of the American League Against War and Fascism , a Communist organization. The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) was created in 1938 to uncover sedition and treason within the United States. When witnesses testified at its hearings,

8568-615: The Philadelphia Federation of Teachers. ASPIRA of Illinois operates three charter high schools and one charter middle school. The board of directors voted 5-4 to fire its CEO in March 2012 due to low test scores - Aspira of Illinois student test scores were lower than averages for the Chicago Public Schools for at least six years in a row. American Civil Liberties Union The American Civil Liberties Union ( ACLU )

8704-493: The South, including lack of voting rights, segregation, and discrimination in the justice system. Funded by the Garland Fund , the ACLU also participated in producing the influential Margold Report , which outlined a strategy to fight for civil rights for blacks. The ACLU planned to demonstrate that the " separate but equal " policies governing the Southern discrimination were illegal because blacks were never, in fact, treated equally. In 1932 – twelve years after

8840-414: The Supreme Court sided with the ACLU and affirmed the right of a communist party member to salute a communist flag. The result was the first time the Supreme Court used the Due Process Clause of the 14th amendment to subject states to the requirements of the First Amendment . In Near v. Minnesota , also decided in 1931, the Supreme Court ruled that states may not exercise prior restraint and prevent

8976-455: The Supreme Court threw away William Wayne Thompson's death sentence due to it being cruel and unusual punishment, as he was 15 years old at the time of the crime he committed; the judgment established that "evolving standards of decency" made it inappropriate to apply the death penalty for people under 16 years old at the time of their capital crime, although Thompson held that it was still constitutional to sentence juveniles 16 years or older to

9112-407: The Supreme Court were the best way to achieve change. In addition to labor, the ACLU also led efforts in non-labor arenas, for example, promoting free speech in public schools. The ACLU was banned from speaking in New York public schools in 1921. The ACLU, working with the NAACP , also supported racial discrimination cases. The ACLU defended free speech regardless of espoused opinions. For example,

9248-400: The Supreme Court's Coker v. Georgia decision barred the death penalty for rape of an adult woman. Previously, the death penalty for rape of an adult had been gradually phased out in the United States, and at the time of the decision, Georgia and the Federal government were the only two jurisdictions to still retain the death penalty for this offense. In the 1980 case Godfrey v. Georgia ,

9384-416: The Supreme court reversed itself. The rise of totalitarian regimes in Germany, Russia, and other countries that rejected freedom of speech and association greatly impacted the civil liberties movement in the US; anti-Communist sentiment rose, and civil liberties were curtailed. The ACLU leadership was divided over whether or not to defend pro- Nazi speech in the United States; pro-labor elements within

9520-480: The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that murder can be punished by death only if it involves a narrow and precise aggravating factor . The U.S. Supreme Court has placed two major restrictions on the use of the death penalty. First, the case of Atkins v. Virginia , decided on June 20, 2002, held that the execution of intellectually disabled inmates is unconstitutional. Second, in 2005, the court's decision in Roper v. Simmons struck down executions for offenders under

9656-499: The USSR. This uneasy relationship between the two groups continued for decades. Five years after the ACLU was formed, the organization had virtually no success to show for its efforts. That changed in 1925, when the ACLU persuaded John T. Scopes to defy Tennessee's anti- evolution law in The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes . Clarence Darrow , a member of the ACLU National Committee, headed Scopes' legal team. The prosecution, led by William Jennings Bryan , contended that

9792-501: The United States decided on Trop v. Dulles in 1958. The Supreme Court declared explicitly, for the first time, that the Eighth Amendment's cruel and unusual punishment clause must draw its meaning from the "evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society", rather than from its original meaning. Also in the 1932 case Powell v. Alabama , the court made the first step of what would later be called "death

9928-423: The United States ; protecting housing and employment rights of veterans ; reforming sex offender registries and protecting housing and employment rights of convicted first-time offenders; supporting the rights of prisoners and opposing torture ; upholding the separation of church and state by opposing government preference for religion over non-religion or for particular faiths over others; and supporting

10064-515: The United States can be traced to early colonial Virginia . There were no executions in the United States between 1967 and 1977. In 1972, the Supreme Court of the United States struck down capital punishment statutes in Furman v. Georgia , reducing all pending death sentences to life imprisonment at the time. Subsequently, a majority of states enacted new death penalty statutes, and the court affirmed

10200-637: The Wyoming ACLU chapter received such subsidies until April 2015, when, as part of a round of layoffs at the national ACLU, the Wyoming office was closed. In October 2004, the ACLU rejected $ 1.5 million from both the Ford Foundation and Rockefeller Foundation because the foundations had adopted language from the USA PATRIOT Act in their donation agreements, including a clause stipulating that none of

10336-460: The age of 18 at the time of the crime . In the 2008 case Kennedy v. Louisiana , the court also held 5–4 that the death penalty is unconstitutional when applied to non-homicidal crimes against the person, including child rape . Only two death row inmates (both in Louisiana) were affected by the decision. Nevertheless, the ruling came less than five months before the 2008 presidential election and

10472-513: The censorship of movies and to discourage the publication of birth control information. This conflict between the ACLU and the Catholic Church led to the resignation of the last Catholic priest from ACLU leadership in 1934; a Catholic priest would not be represented again until the 1970s. The first decision that marked the Supreme Court's major shift in policy —no longer applying strict constitutional limits to government programs, and taking

10608-588: The circulation of anti-union literature, and the singling out of union supporters for pre-textual discipline. A complaint filed before the National Labor Relations Board also alleges that ASPIRA of Pennsylvania has threatened to lay off teachers "as a direct result of union organizing." A third complaint alleges that a discipline policy introduced in December 2013 would restrict employees abilities to communicate with one another. A fourth complaint filed in January 2014 concerns

10744-453: The concerns of White and Stewart in Furman . Some states responded by enacting mandatory death penalty statutes which prescribed a sentence of death for anyone convicted of certain forms of murder. White had hinted that such a scheme would meet his constitutional concerns in his Furman opinion. Other states adopted "bifurcated" trial and sentencing procedures, with various procedural limitations on

10880-461: The country at the federal level , and in American Samoa . It is also a legal penalty for some military offenses . Capital punishment has been abolished in 23 states and in the federal capital, Washington, D.C. It is usually applied for only the most serious crimes, such as aggravated murder . Although it is a legal penalty in 27 states, 20 of them have authority to execute death sentences, with

11016-449: The court struck down 5–4 statutes providing a mandatory death sentence . Executions resumed on January 17, 1977, when Gary Gilmore went before a firing squad in Utah . Although hundreds of individuals were sentenced to death in the United States during the 1970s and early 1980s, only ten people besides Gilmore (who had waived all of his appeal rights) were executed prior to 1984. Following

11152-410: The creation of the United States up to the beginning of the 1960s. Until then, "save for a few mavericks, no one gave any credence to the possibility of ending the death penalty by judicial interpretation of constitutional law", according to abolitionist Hugo Bedau . The possibility of challenging the constitutionality of the death penalty became progressively more realistic after the Supreme Court of

11288-458: The day-to-day operations of the organization. The board of directors consists of 80 persons, including representatives from each state affiliate and at-large delegates. The organization has its headquarters in 125 Broad Street , a 40-story skyscraper located in Lower Manhattan , New York City. The leadership of the ACLU does not always agree on policy decisions; differences of opinion within

11424-616: The death penalty by popular vote in 1916 and 1964 respectively, but both reinstated it, again by popular vote, some years later; Arizona reinstated the death penalty in 1918 and Oregon in 1978. In Oregon, the measure reinstating the death penalty was overturned by the Oregon Supreme Court in 1981, but Oregon voters again reinstated the death penalty in 1984. Puerto Rico and Michigan are the only two U.S. jurisdictions to have explicitly prohibited capital punishment in their constitutions: in 1952 and 1964, respectively. Capital punishment

11560-486: The death penalty during all of my life. I don't see any evidence that it's a deterrent, and I think there are better and more effective ways to deal with violent crime." Bush was elected, and many, including Dukakis himself, cite the statement as the beginning of the end of his campaign. In 1996, Congress passed the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act to streamline the appeal process in capital cases. The bill

11696-460: The death penalty for murder during the 19th century: Michigan (which has never executed a prisoner and is the first government in the English-speaking world to abolish capital punishment) in 1847, Wisconsin in 1853, and Maine in 1887. Rhode Island is also a state with a long abolitionist background, having repealed the death penalty in 1852, though it was available for murder committed by

11832-472: The death penalty will not be imposed. At the second hearing, the jury determines whether certain statutory aggravating factors exist, whether any mitigating factors exist, and, in many jurisdictions, weigh the aggravating and mitigating factors in assessing the ultimate penalty – either death or life in prison, either with or without parole. The same day, in Woodson v. North Carolina and Roberts v. Louisiana ,

11968-576: The death penalty. It was not until Roper v. Simmons that the juvenile death penalty was abolished due to the United States Supreme Court finding that the execution of juveniles is in conflict with the Eighth Amendment and Fourteenth Amendment , which deal with cruel and unusual punishment. Prior to completely abolishing the juvenile death penalty in 2005, any juvenile aged 16 years or older could be sentenced to death in some states,

12104-482: The decision was limited to the state of New Jersey, the appeals court's judgment in 1928 declared that constitutional guarantees of free speech must be given "liberal and comprehensive construction", and it marked a major turning point in the civil rights movement , signaling the shift of judicial opinion in favor of civil rights. The most important ACLU case of the 1920s was Gitlow v. New York , in which Benjamin Gitlow

12240-634: The decision, the use of capital punishment in the United States soared. This was in contrast to trends in other parts of advanced industrial democracies where the use of capital punishment declined or was prohibited. Members of the Council of Europe comply with the European Convention of Human Rights which prohibits capital punishment. The last execution in the UK took place in 1964, and in 1977 in France. In 1977,

12376-427: The distribution of sex education information based on the premise that it was obscene and led to promiscuous behavior. Mary Ware Dennett was fined $ 300 in 1928 for distributing a pamphlet containing sex education material. The ACLU, led by Morris Ernst, appealed her conviction and won a reversal, in which judge Learned Hand ruled that the pamphlet's primary purpose was to "promote understanding". The success prompted

12512-407: The federal government carried out a total of 13 executions. In 1632, 24 years after the first recorded male execution in the colonies, Jane Champion became the first woman known to have been lawfully executed. She was sentenced to death by hanging after she was convicted of infanticide; around two-thirds of women executed in the 17th and early 18th centuries were convicted of child murder. Champion

12648-457: The federal government. Executions increased in frequency until 1999; 98 prisoners were executed that year. Since 1999, the number of executions has greatly decreased, and the 17 executions in 2020 were the fewest since 1991. A 2016 poll conducted by Pew Research, found that support nationwide for the death penalty in the U.S. had fallen below 50% for the first time since the beginning of the post-Gregg era. The death penalty became an issue during

12784-436: The first Southern state to do so when governor Ralph Northam signed a repeal bill on March 24, 2021, and commuted all existing death sentences in the state to life without parole. Since Furman , 11 states have organized popular votes dealing with the death penalty through the initiative and referendum process . All resulted in a vote for reinstating it, rejecting its abolition, expanding its application field, specifying in

12920-441: The first execution by lethal injection in world history and lethal injection subsequently became the preferred method throughout the country, displacing the electric chair. From 1976 to December 8, 2016, there were 1,533 executions, of which 1,349 were by lethal injection, 163 by electrocution, 11 by gas inhalation, 3 by hanging, and 3 by firing squad. The South had the great majority of these executions, with 1,249; there were 190 in

13056-524: The first inmate executed by the federal government since 2003. Thirteen federal death row inmates were executed, all under Trump. The last and most recent federal execution was of Dustin Higgs , who was executed on January 16, 2021. On July 1, 2021, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced that a moratorium on the federal death penalty was being reinstated. As of March 2024 , there were 40 inmates on federal death row. The first recorded death sentence in

13192-475: The first state to repeal the death penalty by legislative vote since Gregg v. Georgia , followed by New Mexico in 2009, Illinois in 2011, Connecticut in 2012, and Maryland in 2013. The repeals were not retroactive, but in New Jersey, Illinois and Maryland, governors commuted all death sentences after enacting the new law. In Connecticut, the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled in 2015 that

13328-444: The gang rape of a white woman. The Furman decision caused all death sentences pending at the time to be reduced to life imprisonment, and was described by scholars as a "legal bombshell". The next day, columnist Barry Schweid wrote that it was "unlikely" that the death penalty could exist anymore in the United States. Instead of abandoning capital punishment, 37 states enacted new death penalty statutes that attempted to address

13464-461: The inconsistent application of the death penalty across a variety of cases, but did not exclude the possibility of a constitutional death penalty law. Stewart and William O. Douglas worried explicitly about racial discrimination in enforcement of the death penalty . Thurgood Marshall and William J. Brennan Jr. expressed the opinion that the death penalty was proscribed absolutely by the Eighth Amendment as cruel and unusual punishment. This decision

13600-433: The jury's ability to pronounce a death sentence designed to limit juror discretion. On July 2, 1976, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Gregg v. Georgia and upheld 7–2 a Georgia procedure in which the trial of capital crimes was bifurcated into guilt-innocence and sentencing phases. At the first proceeding, the jury decides the defendant's guilt; if the defendant is innocent or otherwise not convicted of first-degree murder,

13736-517: The landmark case United States v. One Book Called Ulysses in 1933, which reversed a ban by the Customs Department against the book Ulysses by James Joyce . The ACLU only achieved mixed results in the early years, and it was not until 1966 that the Supreme Court finally clarified the obscenity laws in the Roth v. United States and Memoirs v. Massachusetts cases. The Comstock laws banned

13872-645: The last of whom was Scott Hain , executed at the age of 32 in Oklahoma for the 2003 burning of two people to death during a robbery at age 17. Prior to Roper , there were 71 people on death row in the United States for crimes committed as juveniles. Since 2005, there have been no executions nor discussion of executing juveniles in the United States . Aggravating factors for seeking capital punishment of murder vary greatly among death penalty states. California has twenty-two. Some aggravating circumstances are nearly universal, such as robbery-murder, murder involving rape of

14008-439: The legality of gender-affirming treatments, including those that are government funded, for trans youth. Legally, the ACLU consists of two separate but closely affiliated nonprofit organizations, namely the American Civil Liberties Union, a 501(c)(4) social welfare group; and the ACLU Foundation, a 501(c)(3) public charity . Both organizations engage in civil rights litigation, advocacy, and education, but only donations to

14144-542: The legality of the practice in the 1976 case Gregg v. Georgia . Since then, more than 8,700 defendants have been sentenced to death; of these, more than 1,550 have been executed. At least 190 people who were sentenced to death since 1972 have since been exonerated, about 2.2% or one in 46. As of April 13, 2022, about 2,400 to 2,500 convicts are still on death row. The Trump administration 's Department of Justice announced its plans to resume executions for federal crimes in 2019. On July 14, 2020, Daniel Lewis Lee became

14280-406: The money would go to "underwriting terrorism or other unacceptable activities". The ACLU views this clause, both in federal law and in the donors' agreements, as a threat to civil liberties, saying it is overly broad and ambiguous. Due to the nature of its legal work, the ACLU is often involved in litigation against governmental bodies, which are generally protected from adverse monetary judgments;

14416-461: The other 7, as well as the federal government and military, subject to moratoriums . As of 2024, of the 38 OECD member countries , only two (the United States and Japan ) allow capital punishment. Taiwan and Israel are the only other advanced democracies with capital punishment; in 2024 Taiwan's Constitutional Court upheld the legality of the death penalty, but restricted its use to the most serious crimes. The existence of capital punishment in

14552-538: The period. A study published in The Lancet in 2005 found that in 43% of cases of lethal injection, the blood level of hypnotics in the prisoner was insufficient to ensure unconsciousness. Nonetheless, the Supreme Court ruled in 2008 ( Baze v. Rees ), again in 2015 ( Glossip v. Gross ), and a third time in 2019 ( Bucklew v. Precythe ), that lethal injection does not constitute cruel and unusual punishment . On July 25, 2019, Attorney General William Barr ordered

14688-460: The practice of outlawing strikes, marriages, and labor organizing activities with the use of injunctions. The ACLU also played a key role in initiating a nationwide effort to reduce misconduct (such as extracting false confessions) within police departments by publishing the report Lawlessness in Law Enforcement in 1931, under the auspices of Herbert Hoover 's Wickersham Commission . In 1934,

14824-457: The reactionary, anti-Catholic, anti-black Ku Klux Klan (KKK) was a frequent target of ACLU efforts, but the ACLU defended the KKK's right to hold meetings in 1923. There were some civil rights that the ACLU did not make an effort to defend in the 1920s, including censorship of the arts, government search and seizure issues, right to privacy , or wiretapping . Government officials routinely hounded

14960-435: The relatively low number of executions of women may have been impacted by the scarcity of female laborers. Slavery was not yet widespread in the 17th century mainland and planters relied mostly on Irish indentured servants. To maintain subsistence levels in those days everyone had to do farm work, including women. The second half of the 17th century saw the executions of 14 women and 6 men who were accused of witchcraft during

15096-497: The repeal must be retroactive. In New Mexico, capital punishment for certain offenses is still possible for National Guard members in Title 32 status under the state's Code of Military Justice (NMSA 20–12), and for capital offenses committed prior to the repeal of the state's death penalty statute. Nebraska 's legislature also passed a repeal in 2015, but a referendum campaign gathered enough signatures to suspend it. Capital punishment

15232-521: The resumption of federal executions after a 16-year hiatus, and set five execution dates for December 2019 and January 2020. After the Supreme Court upheld a stay on these executions, the stay was lifted in June 2020 and four executions were rescheduled for July and August 2020. The federal government executed Daniel Lewis Lee on July 14, 2020. He became the first convict executed by the federal government since 2003. Before Trump's term ended in January 2021,

15368-638: The speech rights of communists, Nazis, Ku Klux Klan members, accused terrorists, pornographers, anti-LGBT activists, and flag burners. That's because the defense of freedom of speech is most necessary when the message is one most people find repulsive. Constitutional rights must apply to even the most unpopular groups if they're going to be preserved for everyone." The ACLU developed from the National Civil Liberties Bureau (CLB), co-founded in 1917 during World War I by Crystal Eastman , an attorney activist, and Roger Nash Baldwin . The focus of

15504-533: The state constitution that it is not unconstitutional, or expediting the appeal process in capital cases. The advocacy group Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty is creating a national network of Republican and Libertarian legislators at the state level to introduce bills aimed at abolishing or limiting the death penalty. The issue is framed along the values of pro-life , limited government , and fiscal responsibility . A total of 23 states, plus

15640-561: The statute in Kansas v. Marsh (2006), holding it did not violate the U.S. Constitution. The decision of the New York Court of Appeals was based on the state constitution, making unavailable any appeal. The state lower house has since blocked all attempts to reinstate the death penalty by adopting a valid sentencing scheme. In 2016, Delaware 's death penalty statute was also struck down by its state supreme court. In 2007, New Jersey became

15776-546: The stay. In 1642, the first ever juvenile, Thomas Graunger , was sentenced to death in Plymouth Colony, Massachusetts, for bestiality . Since then, at least 361 other juveniles have been sentenced to the death penalty. In 1959, Leonard Shockley was executed in Maryland, becoming the last person in the United States who was executed while still a juvenile at the time of their execution. Kent v. United States (1966), turned

15912-412: The tides for juvenile capital punishment sentencing when it limited the waiver discretion juvenile courts had. Before this case, juvenile courts had the freedom to waiver juvenile cases to criminal courts without a hearing, which did not make the waiving process consistent across states. Discussions about abolishing the death penalty started occurring between 1983 and 1986. In 1987, Thompson v. Oklahoma ,

16048-417: The whole community. The Bill of Rights adopted in 1789 included the Eighth Amendment which prohibited cruel and unusual punishment . The Fifth Amendment was drafted with language implying a possible use of the death penalty, requiring a grand jury indictment for "capital crime" and a due process of law for deprivation of "life" by the government. The Fourteenth Amendment adopted in 1868 also requires

16184-507: The witch hunt hysteria and the Salem Witch Trials. While both men and women were executed, 80% of the accusations were towards women, so the list of executions disproportionately affected men by a margin of 6 (actual) to 4 (expected), i.e. 50% more men were executed than expected from the percentage of accused who were men. Other notable female executions include Mary Surratt , Margie Velma Barfield and Wanda Jean Allen . Mary Surratt

16320-399: The year ending March 31, 2014, the ACLU and the ACLU Foundation had a combined income from support and revenue of $ 100.4 million, originating from grants (50.0%), membership donations (25.4%), donated legal services (7.6%), bequests (16.2%), and revenue (0.9%). Membership dues are treated as donations; members choose the amount they pay annually, averaging approximately $ 50 per member. In

16456-399: The year ending March 31, 2014, the combined expenses of the ACLU and ACLU Foundation were $ 133.4 million, spent on programs (86.2%), management (7.4%), and fundraising (8.2%). (After factoring in other changes in net assets of +$ 30.9 million, from sources such as investment income, the organization had an overall decrease in net assets of $ 2.1 million.) Over the period from 2011 to 2014,

16592-431: Was a growing willingness to protect freedom of speech and assembly via court decisions. Starting in 1926, the ACLU expanded its free speech activities to encompass censorship of art and literature. In that year, H. L. Mencken deliberately broke Boston law by distributing copies of his banned American Mercury magazine; the ACLU defended him and won an acquittal. The ACLU went on to win additional victories, including

16728-456: Was a married woman; it is not known whether her illicit lover, William Gallopin, also convicted of their child's murder, was also executed, although it appears he was sentenced to death. For the Puritans, infanticide was the worst form of murder. Women accounted for just one fifth of all executions between 1632 and 1759, in the colonial United States . Women were more likely to be acquitted, and

16864-661: Was arrested for violating a state law against inciting anarchy and violence when he distributed literature promoting communism. Although the Supreme Court did not overturn Gitlow's conviction, it adopted the ACLU's stance (later termed the incorporation doctrine ) that the First Amendment freedom of speech applied to state laws, as well as federal laws. The Oregon Compulsory Education Act required almost all children in Oregon between eight and sixteen years of age to attend public school by 1926. Associate Director Roger Nash Baldwin ,

17000-618: Was criticized by both major party candidates Barack Obama and John McCain . In 2023 and 2024, Florida and Tennessee passed laws that could challenge the Kennedy v. Louisiana decision. In 2004, New York 's and Kansas ' capital sentencing schemes were struck down by their respective states' highest courts. Kansas successfully appealed the Kansas Supreme Court decision to the United States Supreme Court, which reinstated

17136-456: Was ever executed under that law, and Michigan's 1962 Constitutional Convention codified that the death penalty was fully abolished. Vermont has abolished the death penalty for all crimes, but has an invalid death penalty statue for treason. When it abolished the death penalty in 2019, New Hampshire explicitly did not commute the death sentence of the sole person remaining on the state's death row, Michael K. Addison . In 1982, Texas carried out

17272-428: Was executed by hanging in 1865 after being convicted of co-conspiring to assassinate Abraham Lincoln . Margie Velma Barfield was convicted of murder and when she was executed by lethal injection in 1984, she became the first woman to be executed since the ban on capital punishment was lifted in 1976. Wanda Jean Allen was convicted of murder in 1989 and had a high-profile execution by lethal injection in January 2001. She

17408-404: Was executed in the gas chamber later that same year on December 18. Since Heady, only one more woman has been executed by the federal government: Lisa Montgomery , convicted of killing a pregnant woman and cutting out and kidnapping her baby, by lethal injection on January 13, 2021. Her execution had been stayed while her lawyers argued that she had mental health issues, but the Supreme Court lifted

17544-533: Was more tolerant of dissent than Wilson had been. The primary explanation was that prosecutors, working under similar laws, had fewer plausible targets because almost everyone rallied to the war effort after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Capital punishment in the United States In the United States , capital punishment (also known as the death penalty) is a legal penalty in 27 states, throughout

17680-522: Was reached by the suspicion that many states, particularly in the South, were using capital punishment as a form of legal lynching of African-American males, inasmuch as almost all executions for non-homicidal rape in the Southern states involved a black perpetrator, and this suspicion was fueled by cases such as the Martinsville Seven , when seven African-American men were executed by Virginia in 1951 for

17816-490: Was reinstated by popular vote on November 8, 2016. The same day, California 's electorate defeated a proposal to repeal the death penalty, and adopted another initiative to speed up its appeal process. On October 11, 2018, Washington state became the 20th state to abolish capital punishment when its state Supreme Court deemed the death penalty unconstitutional on the grounds of racial bias. The state later abolished it through legislation passed in 2023. New Hampshire became

17952-461: Was signed into law by President Bill Clinton , who had endorsed capital punishment during his 1992 presidential campaign. A study found that at least 34 of the 749 executions carried out in the U.S. between 1977 and 2001, or 4.5%, involved "unanticipated problems or delays that caused, at least arguably, unnecessary agony for the prisoner or that reflect gross incompetence of the executioner". The rate of these "botched executions" remained steady over

18088-615: Was the Jehovah's Witnesses , who were involved in a large number of Supreme Court cases . The most important cases involved statutes requiring flag salutes. The Jehovah's Witnesses felt that saluting a flag was contrary to their religious beliefs. Two children were convicted in 1938 of not saluting the flag. The ACLU supported their appeal to the Supreme Court, but the court affirmed the conviction in 1940. But three years later, in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette ,

18224-448: Was the best long-term solution because the Supreme Court could not mandate liberal interpretations of the Bill of Rights. But Walter Pollak , Morris Ernst , and other leaders felt that Supreme Court decisions were the best path to guarantee civil liberties. A series of Supreme Court decisions in the 1920s foretold a changing national atmosphere; anti-radical emotions were diminishing, and there

18360-536: Was the first black woman to be executed in the US since 1954. Allen's appellate lawyers did not deny her guilt, but claimed that prosecutors capitalized on her low IQ, race and homosexuality in their representations of her as a murderer at trial. This approach did not work. The federal government executes women infrequently. Ethel Rosenberg , convicted of espionage, was executed in the electric chair on June 19, 1953, and Bonnie Brown Heady , convicted of kidnapping and murder,

18496-481: Was used by 6 of 50 states in 2022. They were Alabama, Arizona, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas. Government executions, as reported by Amnesty International , took place in 20 of the world's 195 countries. The Federal government of the United States, which had not executed a prisoner since 2003, did so in 2020, in an effort led by President Donald Trump and Attorney General William Barr . Executions for various crimes, especially murder and rape, occurred from

#937062