The American Civil Liberties Union

An American’s civil liberties are among some of the most important rights awarded to a citizen. After 9/11 some of those liberties were taken away by the expansion of executive power, the National Security

"Racial profiling” can hold a variety of meanings. As defined by the American Civil Liberties Union, however, racial profiling is "the discriminatory practice by law enforcement officials of targeting individuals for suspicion of crime based on the individual 's race, ethnicity, religion or national origin" (“Racial Profiling”). Every day, blacks are stopped much more frequently for aimless searches and minor infractions than their white counterparts. Several African Americans share experiences like these, such as Roscoe Van Pelt, who was violently snatched off the street and crammed into a squad car after the ludicrous crime of jaywalking (Walsh). A more extreme example would be the case of Sandra Bland, who was brutally beaten following failure to signal a lane change (Schuppe). Incidents like these occur far too frequently in black communities, all for the color of their skin.

Having previous experience dealing with aliens, Palmer took seriously to threats of communism overthrowing the country and decided to act on this, thus leading to the Palmer Raids. In his 1920 forum, “The Case against the ‘Reds’”, Palmer defends America from the communists declaring that the communists are “…preaching of anarchy and sedition…advising the defiance of law…” and encouraging the destruction of property. This primary document written by Palmer, set communists up as criminals stating that “robbery, not war, is the ideal of communism…” and that it is “…the American Government[s]…” job to prevent this . By gaining support of fellow Americans, Palmer helps further exploit the communist party and extract fear into the American minds.

Civil Liberties In America, today there is a lot of controversy over human’s rights. This is not true of just today, however, this fight for people 's rights has been going on for ages. There are two basic types of rights. 2 There are Civil Rights and there are Civil Liberties. Civil Liberties are a broader topic, such as the right to vote or the right to bear arms, they can be directly from the Bill of Rights or the Constitution. While Civil Rights are more specific, for example, employers cannot be ageist or sexist and woman should have the same chance for a promotion than any man. Civil Rights protect everyone from any type of discrimination. While Civil

Civil rights and civil liberties have been constantly changing and growing as our country moves forward with its ever-changing society. Civil liberties are about

There is a difference between civil liberties and civil rights in relation to the government. Civil liberties refer to an individual’s unalienable freedoms that cannot be taken away by political intervention. On the other hand, civil rights are provided by the government in order to promote equality. This ideology was introduced to the founders of the nation by John Locke, who believed in natural rights. Locke stated that these natural rights are to be protected and secured by the government. The question that should be raised now is whether the government truly does protect our civil rights and have the citizens’ best interest in mind.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) generally enters into legal disputes related to Bill of Rights issues.

Civil rights and civil of liberties have regularly been the discussion of different locales throughout the years. In the achievement of social liberties and freedoms, laws and statutory arrangements have must be drafted. In extraordinary cases, activists have needed to go past the standard to ensure that these rights and freedoms are accomplished. Civil freedoms are certifiable or positive arrangements that are ensured by

This unit ties together the ideas of individual rights and civil rights that is protected by the Constitution. In the first task of this

Political advocacy organizations have historically played a big part in securing political rights for minority groups in Western Liberal Democracies. Whether we look to the now infamous Boston Tea Party to the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, we observe the importance of political organizations in their quest to ensure equitable rights for the people whom they represent. In context of the early twentieth century, the most prominent group to represent African-American’s in the United States was that of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The NAACP, as it is more commonly called, was founded on February 12, 1909 by a mixed group of individuals including but not limited to Ida B. Wells, W. E. B. DuBois and Archibald Grimké with the goal of creating a civil rights organization that would help assist in organizing for civil rights for blacks. One of its most prominent members, Charles Hamilton Houston, who became a part of the organization around the mid-twentieth century, changed the trajectory of the organization for years to come. Hence this essay

"Fully 90 percent of the Communist and Anarchist agitation is traceable to aliens." Through the use of the Espionage Act of 1917 and the Sedition Act of 1918 Palmer began his campaign against this threat against our government. Palmer used this legislation as justification of his actions. The best example of Palmers manipulation of the law to take normally illegal action against suspects was on January 2nd 1920. Palmer had federal agents round up thousands of suspected subversives without respecting those individuals' constitutional rights as American citizens. This was not the first time in our history that the government has backed the unnecessary persecution of a group of people based on fear that they would eventually take over the United States and change the American way of life. One event in history that has similar attributes to this period is the passing of the Chinese exclusion act. These two occurrences, although for different reasons, were very similar in the tactics that were employed to enforce and justify superfluous panic.

The United States wrongly deported and imprisoned many who did not agree with the values they believed. Foreigners were mostly affected through this, a specifc time, 1919-1920 the Palmer raids began to surface. In the document "The Case Against the "Reds", it elaborated on the views of A. Mitchell Palmer. Palmer believed that thousands of "aliens" supported communism and he would deport and imprison those who supported radical ideas. No actual evidence to support this belief just a broad statement. In the document "Emma Goldman Deportation Statement" Emma believes that the deportations were unjustified and used communism as an excuse to deport people who did not support the country.

It violated, however, the civil rights necessary for democracy. While the ACLU proposed to protect civil rights no matter the cause, it refused at times to extend those civil rights to Communists or Communist sympathizers on the grounds that Communists sought to suppress civil rights. Thus, although the ACLU and HUAC are generally perceived as diametrically opposed groups, the ambivalence of both groups makes it difficult to paint the former as the archetypal protector of civil rights and the latter as the archetypal suppressor of civil rights.

Following World War I, America turned inward and began to focus on itself. Yet, coming home from war Americans were also fearful of communism due to the recent Bolshevik Revolution where Lenin and the Bolshevik party gained control of Russia and made it communist. This scare led to drastic changes within our nation’s borders as America fought to keep communist influence out of its borders. This was such an impactful event that even the Attorney General of the time, A. Mitchell Palmer, set up a section in the Justice Department to handle issues relating to radicals, this sect of the Justice Department would be very active as, “More than ten thousand people were arrested—some for membership in Communist or left-wing groups, others on no greater pretext than that they looked or sounded foreign—and then jailed and interrogated with little regard for their right to due process” (Lehman, Phelps 260). This severe response to the scare of Communism demonstrates an inward focusing of America. Similarly, in the post-World War I time period America would demonstrate its interest in nativism which it would demonstrate through multiple acts being passed on immigration primarily, the Immigration Act of 1924. During this period of nativism, “Through the whole movement, from 1921 on, for more drastic curbs on the new immigration ran an increasingly assertive racial nativism” (Higham 313). That is America had

The Book written by Laura Weinrib is provocatively titled “The Taming of Free Speech: America’s Civil Liberties Compromise”, where the word taming is used to highlight the ACLU’s goal of protecting workers’ rights to defending the rights of everyone, regardless of their social, economic and political status. By using the word “taming”, the author characterizes the ACLU’s change in intension to protect the speech of all perspectives, even if it’s against the interest of the labor unions. The author also exemplifies an event in 1940, where the ACLU objected to a National Labor Relations Board order to prohibit employers from distributing anti-union leaflets to workers, an event which she finds as “taming of free speech”. David Cole, the critic of the two books agrees with the authors on most cases, however, refuses to arrive at a common conclusion.