They are there to protect your freedom and the people who hate the ACLU are mostly people who want to destroy freedom.

I am pretty amazed by some peoples' thoughts here. Everyone knows the A(anti) C (Christian) L (liberal) U (union) are NOT securing the rights of the American people! A child ~ yes, I said child, can go to school wearing a t-shirt claiming the devil rocks, but if another one tried to say a prayer ~ LOOK OUT! That's unconstitutional! The ACLU are out to help anyone of anything that doesn't relate to God. They have an agends folks ~ and it doesn't include any form of Christianity. They have taken "Christ" out of Christmas, we know longer have Christmas trees ~ only Holiday trees, we now say Happy Holidays, and heaven forbid, if someone sneezes and you say God Bless You ~ you may end up in jail for OFFENDING someone. There are so many frivolous law suits out there by the ACLU that, mark my words, pretty soon EVERYONE will start to get sick of them. And for those who think this organization is "fair" and there for EVERYONES' rights ~ I challenge you to find one time the ACLU stood up for a Christian and prove me wrong. People, do your own research, get your own mind, and stop believing everything the Liberal media tells you.

If they truly defended everyone's rights, this would be an honorable organization. As it is though, they seem more interested in protecting the rights of some groups at the expense of others.

The ACLU was founded in 1920 by Roger Baldwin, a self-proclaimed communist. Nuff said.

Thanks to Republican and Christian-Fascist disinformation, the American People would VOTE DOWN The Bill of Rights if it were put to a vote today. The ACLU isn't "alleged" to support the Bill of Rights, they DO support the Bill of Rights, they are THE ONLY PROTECTORS of that, the most important of our nation's Charter Documents.

Consider the very real effects of propagated religious right-wing political enfluence on the population: Today, it's considered "too controversial" to place our government's founding documents on a school house wall, but it's considered "un-American" and "un-patriotic" to oppose having the bible or the ten commandments placed in our public school classrooms. <~ That's INSANE. David Koresh nor Jim Jones nor Tom Cruise nor Mullah Omar nor Focus on the Family should be allowed the right to be using a captive audience in a school biology class for indoctrinating or evangelizing our school children.

We don't get to go into their churches, synagogues and mosques and make them THINK - so why should they be allowed to come into our kids' classrooms and try to STOP them from thinking?

The "debate" has been skewed so badly in this direction in the interest of stealth fascist theocrats who believe in a Bronze-Age myth about the creation of the universe and the origins of life, and these people want to re-litigate the Scopes Monkey Trial, bring back the stonings of the Dark Ages and put "witches" back on trial in modern, 21st century American courtrooms - and they've already begun.

Nobody appreciates the ACLU - until they NEED it. Just ask Oliver North or Rush Limbaugh.

Earl Browder was secretary of the Communist Party in the USA from 1930 till 1944. When the party was reconstituted as the Communist Political Association later in 1944 and Earl Browder was the president he said that the ACLU was "a transmission belt" for the Communist Political Association.

They try so hard defending our "civil liberties" that we end up not having any!

Here's the web site... http://www.aclu.org/ I have something goimg with them right now. I don't understand why when someone goes into the emergency room at any given hospital and they are given a sheet of paper with their legal medical rights on it to sign, they are espected to read it before they sign that paper! If you're in emergency, in most cases you are not in any condition to read that paper, which explains to you, the emergenceeee, that you must sign a waver for someone to have access to your medical information. If you are not told in plain words that this must be done, no single person can get any information on your condition. That means people who are not in their right mind, people in shock, people who are elderly and can't see well, people in serious detrimental conditions. I believe that this part of the document should be recited to them, not just handed out for them to read. I'm hoping they can help. It seems like they are trying.

One of the most, if not THE most dangerous organization in the USA today. It was started by a communist (if you dont believe me, look it up), and they continue to dissmantle America brick by brick. They stand for everything Im against.

The crap and the propaganda I am reading here is typical of the brainwashed buffoons who support the American right... I mean, how can you not love an organisation that fights for the supremacy of the secular state (any form of theocracy, including an atheistic one like the Soviet Union or the PRC, is immoral), the right to privacy in the wake of increasingly intrusive government, stopping theocratic and corporatist interests from forcing Chinese-style censorship down the throat of American Internet users, the right for adults to privately use cannabis... My God...If I were American, I'd be a card-carrying member...:-P...It's the closest relevant organisation your country has to Canada's NDP...Too bad it isn't a political party...

The ACLU tries to help anyone being oppressed by the government. They even tried to help Rush Limbaugh, who hates them completely.

Anti-Christian-liberty-Union Update: I am sadden to see this bias, travesty of an organization rated about the Boy Scouts.

They are to be commended for helping those who are disadvantaged and discriminated against. Free speech is something (like this site even) that must be protected. I am conservative on crime though and I do not agree with coddling murderers, rapists and child molesters so I subtract one star based on this.

Another organization that was born with from a good idea, but has deteriorated into little more than a left wing political organization. Despite thier twisted views of things like separation of church and state, I'll grudgingly give them 2 stars for the rare times they actually do the work the organization was founded on.

The ACLU is oxymoronic, with the emphasis on moronic.. stressing equality, they secretly , no OPENLY flaunt hatred against Christians and Jews... The ACLU is Communist and Nazi, Communazi...

America would be much better off without the communist ACLU. Too bad I can't give them a negative rating because they suck so much. I hope they all rot in hell.

Another group of morons like NOW, who only fight for your rights if your on their side of a political issue. Too bad the innocent woman condemed to die by a Floida judge wasn't worth their time. But if she was convicted of killing six children and on death row they would have fought to keep her alive!

A good organization that protects our civil rights.

Well, they back some unpopular causes sometimes, but I don't know about you, but I would like to have my civil liberties defended.

The ACLU is not a patriotic organization. It is an organization which hates America and places the radical whims of a few activists in front of the general moral good. It twists the US Constitution to its purposes and takes advantage of the plethora of liberal judges and their America-hating agenda to foist the will of a radical, anarchic minority on the rest of the country by glamorizing a few successful verdicts. Tell me again about NAMBLA, and how their constitutional rights were violated. Do some research.

This Organization is defending our Constitution.That is the most Patriotic job around,because our Flag is only a symbol of the Freedom that is guaranteed to Americans by the constitution.If the Constitution is tampered with or gutted,we will no longer be a free country.That makes the Constitution more sacred than even the flag.

Thank the creator for the ACLU. They're out there stopping the government from sucking the guts out of the Constitution. If our country was founded by Christians, why isn't Christianity our state religion? Why did the Founding Fathers make sure that religion didn't get mixed up with politics? If you think the Founding Fathers were Christians, you believe a version of revisionist history that simply isn't true. So, when the ACLU gets prayer out of a school, or that incredibly ugly 10 Commandment statue out of a courthouse, they are doing the work of the Founders. UPDATE: helmut, if you were to read my post carefully, you would understand that I do not state that the First Amendment was intended to keep the church from interfering with the state. That makes no sense. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. The Framers were very clear on their intention that the government not be able to establish a state religion, coming from a country where the existence of a state religion, the C of E, had allowed abuses of non-state sponsored/sanctioned religions. This Amendment has continually been interpreted by the courts and commentators to mean that the government shall not be able to regulate religion, nor establish one religion over another, nor prohibit the exercise of that religion. So, I go back to my original premise. When the ACLU brings a suit to prevent school prayer, they enforce the constitutional position that the sanctioning by the state of a religious practice is violative of the First Amendment. When it comes to Christmas, I think there is a tendency in people to believe the tabloid headlines, rather than the facts. Christmas is a tricky holiday, in that numerous aspects of its celebration are not religious, such as Christmas trees, wreaths, presents, etc. However, the other aspects of it, i.e. depictions of the birth of Jesus, religious Christmas carols and songs, are clearly religious. The courts tend to walk a very fine line on these differentiations, and the ACLU does not, as far as I know, attack the secular aspects of Christmas, and in no way has EVER attempted to attack the celebration of Christmas by private individuals, private schools, and any other private institution in the manner they deem best. So, it's a case of I'll keep my government out of your religion; you keep your religion out of my government.

Beelzebub, get your facts straight. Separation of church and state was originally intended to keep the state from interfering with the church, not the other way around, as it is often interpreted today. As for the ACLU, I guess they have good intentions, but I think they have gone a bit off the deep end. Trying to get rid of Christmas? That's a little much.

Whose liberties? Those of Micheal Moore and the far left extremists? They sure don't represent me or anyone else who cares about their country AND civil liberties.

A communist agitating group that seeks to bring down the United States and it's institutions and traditions. Very dangerous. Must be stopped.

I'm not sure where louie is getting his facts, but they're wrong. If the ACLU is so supposedly anti-Christian, why then did they help a student get a Biblical passage back into her school's yearbook? http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,119725,00.html

It is time to put a stop to the worthless and useless ACLU!An extremely liberal organization that goes to bat for everyone in this country, but Christians!I agree strongly with ClassicTV, this nation was founded by Christians and they would not approve of this organization full of scoundrels!It is time for people to take a stand against this group of scum!

Doing more to destroy America than Al Qaeda. Atheists Communists Liberals Union

A goofball organization that supports pedophiles, smut-peddlers, insanes. Even more, this organization wants to destroy Christmas! Even more, they've gone off the deep end in their quest to have people believe that Christianity never existed. Like it or not, our country was founded by Christians--that's a part of our history. Why ignore that?

GET A LIFE !!! (This is an e-mail that was sent to the ACLU) Which member of your brain trust dreamed up this utterly inane lawsuit ??? If you are going to argue that the extremely small cross on the LA County Seal is an endorsement of religion, then you should also sue LA to remove the godess Pomona from the seal, as this is 'obviously' an endorsement of paganism and the Greek pantheon. But why stop there ? The cow depicted on the LA seal (which is significantly larger than the cross) is 'obviously' offensive to Vegans and Hindus; let's remove that. The oil derrick is 'obviously' offensive to environmentalists; let's remove that too. The Masonic symbols are 'obviously' a backhanded endorsement of religion (since the Masons are a religious/Christian group, and composed mostly of the 'evil white males' that you liberals so despise); let's get rid of that too. The sailing ship 'obviously' resembles those used by the European conquerors who invaded North America and oppressed the Native Americans (and later, the African Americans); let's get rid of that too. There are two stars next to the cross; this is 'obviously' an endorsement of astrology; there must be somebody who would be offended by this. The Hollywood Bowl, being a circular object, might be offensive to those who belong to the 'cubist' school of art. And last not be least, the fish on the LA county seal could easily be construed to be the Christian fish, and therefore, another backhanded endorsement of Christianity. How about if we encourage LA county to change their symbol to just the letters 'LA' ??

Get real and rid yourself of any notion that these clowns stand for any kind of ideals. Like any other PAC, these bozos are in the game for money and political power only. Otherwise how would you explain the inane logic that seems to accompany every one of their idiotic lawsuits?

They should be called the Anti-Christian Liberties Union. They keep attacking things that are dear to people, then posture themselves as being noble for championing unpopular causes. But there is nothing noble about these mean-spirited meddlers.

I wanna know why John Ashcroft hasnt busted up this terrorist group called the ACLU under the RICO ACT cause the ACLU needs to be busted up under the RICO ACT for what they have done to America by supporting Perverts and Terrorists and anyone who wants to persecute Christians

I do not agree with many things that the ACLU does. Often this organization cannot see the forest from the trees and their use of zero tolerance and blanket policies (something that the war on drugs has already proven to not work) gives this important organization a bad rep. HOWEVER, in these frightening times, I am sure glad the ACLU is around. Since Asscroft has come to power, we have seen an unprecedented decline in our civil liberties with his Patriot Act. The ACLU may be far from perfect, but in a day when this administration now can hold anyone they want without legal advice for as long as they want, tap phone lines, confiscate property and jail anyone who even disagrees with this administration, I'd say they have an important job. people can say all they want that the government will only use the Patriot Act to protect us from terrorists, but I doubt that. It sets a dangerous precedent for future abuses. I'm not going to let this government or media strike fear in me to get me to go along with their Orwellian plan to keep me safe. Land of the free, home of the brave? Try land of the detained-at-the-airport, home of the cowards-sitting-at-home-in-a-duct-tape-fort.

The ACLU is one of the main problems with America today. The ONLY way to achieve America's goals is if people (by people I mean protesters, the ACLU) SHUT UP! Believe what you want to believe, and share your opinions. That's what this country is all about not Do what we want or you'll see us in court! That's pretty much what the ACLU does. I believe the ONLY way to truly put everyone on the same level is to completely get rid of all hate-crime laws, because I believe they are unfair. Think about it, if a white person killed a black person, he would be charged with a hate-crime. However, if a Black person killed a white person he wouldn't be charged with a H-C. The only way to achieve true equality is if we get rid of ALL anti-discrimination laws, and stop forcing schools to meet a quota of minority students. Finally, I believe businesses should be able to higher and fire (I'm not exactly sure if that's how you spell them... I wasn't born with the spelling gene) who ever they want.

American Communist Liberal Union. They stand for nothing but their tiny focused viewpoint.

I have hated the ACLU for quite some time now but I haven't said anything about it now, but I've reached my breaking point. The ACLU has been trying to abolish Christmas for quite some time now and it just makes no sense. I know these socialist atheists are trying to make a minority happy and I ask why? Why should the 5% percent of the atheists in the country along with the ACLU destroy Christmas? Christmas is the most holy Judeo-Christian holiday all year, it is meant to honor the Lord Jesus Christ. If you don't wish to celebrate it, look at it this way, at least you get a day off from work. Plain in simple, if we let the ACLU suceed, which I think won't happen, then we can kiss all of our holidies, religious and secular, good-bye forever. However, America will stand up and fight, and the ACLU will fall!

What a buch of blowhards. This organization made an attack on the BSA's rights to choose its own members. An enemy of the BSA will always be my enemy.

These are the same people that would defend a child molestor's right to a vegan entree in prison. But they seem to approve for a baby to be partially pulled from the mother's vagina, while the Doc jams some kind of sharp plier in the back of the baby's skull, prys it open, then sucks out the brains while the baby twitches and then shrivels up and dies....nice people.

The original idea behind the ACLU was great. However, this group is now showing itself to be racist on anything that is white and chritian. They have done more to stall ending racism than the klan. It's sad because if they didn't do all these b.s. lawsuits it would really help this country. Why don't we stop making everyone equal in every freakin way and embrace our diffrences.

If only they used their powers for good instead of evil......

Socialist Criminals

Agreing with Solinod_DH and Ruby on this one.

the ACLU is incredible. When you see a lawsuit on TV and you think to yourself "that will never go through, it violates our rights!" You have the ACLU to thank. Behind the scenes are these motivated individuals who are fighting to protect your god given rights that you don't even realize are being jeopardized.

They stand up for unpopular causes that have legal standing. . .sometimes they bug me but they have a strict interpretation of the law that one cannot argue with (people emotionally attack the ACLU- rarely do they attack the ACLU on legal grounds.) Sorry America, but what is popular is rarely right.

Ok. Im a highskooler. At my high skool, the ACLU is FIGHTING the skools decision to do random drug testing ONLY on students that are in after skool activities. THIS IS CONSTITUTIONAL! THOSE IDIOTS! ACLU should stand for American CRIMINAL LIABILITIES UNION! They even tried to stop the militairy from using its spy planes to try to hunt out the sniper! OMG! arg. we should shoot all those democratic bastards. their idiots. lets let the Darwinian procces run its corse.

In the constitution, the separtion of church and state was only meant to do one thing, keep the state and federal govts. from setting up an official religion. Thats it. But the ACLU has completely misread that. The ACLU is the most immoral non profit organization out there. They have set out on a mission to tear apart our constitution, and somehow, Americans shouldnt let that happen.

If they are suck staunch constitutionalists, why do they never support the second amendment? militant leftist atheists...

Im at the middle of the road here. I respect the fact that the ACLU fights against religous domination, but condem them for making escuses for lazy ass blacks to sit on their arses to collect welfare.

A group which stands up for what is right, even when the are verbally assulted for it. I still think most people who are so strongly against this group either are ignorant of it's history, or are hateful people. PS: To those people who gave me bad ratings: be a man and tell it to my face! (email)

I have to completely, 100% restate Rusty's comment. It was very well-written. Nationalism and religious bias are what caused these people to hate us and we are merely doing what they are by thinking we are better than everyone else. Please, we all deserve our civil liberties. Dubya isn't exactly the best person to go along with here.

In this day and age, now is when we need these good people more than ever, especially in light of all the unnecessary and tragic hate crimes against people of Middle Eastern descent. Once again, racism rears its ugly head, and we are witnessing this again. VIOLENCE IS NOT THE ANSWER. Education, reason, and empathy work much better, as well as asserting your individual rights and freedoms, which are being tested in the face of jingoistic, aggressively hyper-patriotic people in this nation who seem to be grossly intolerant of anyone who doesn't go along with what President Bush wants to do, which is to wipe the Afghans off the map.

The ACLU deserves more than anything to be at the very top of this list. These are REAL Americans who stand for all types of freedom, justice, and human rights. Even though I don't think I was alive when he died (I don't know when that was), I deeply mourn the loss of Roger Baldwin, the wonderful founder of the ACLU. He was about 26,000 times more American than Ronald Reagan, whom I have noticed some people on this site worship. The ACLU speaks for everyone---they defended a group of young black men who were wrongfully accused of rape, and they later defended the KKK's right to speak in public. They are an amazing organization. All you who gave the American Civil Liberties Union just don't have ACLU(E)! Long live the ACLU!

Despite a few mistakes of this organization, I believe their values are still strong and theirs is a noble cause. One of the best parts about the ACLU is that they DON'T discriminate. They believe everyone has the right to their personal beliefs, whether they agree with them or not. I also like the fact that they protect people from majority rule. I remember when I was in high school and we were discussing school prayer, one dimwitted student asked "if most people agree that prayer in school is good, why can't majority rule?" The answer there is that even if the majority want to do something, it doesn't mean the minority's rights should be stomped out because they don't agree. Freedom of religion includes freedom from religion. Having prayer in school is NOT freedom of speech or freedom of religion. Students who don't want to pray will feel that they are forced to or that their religion isn't as important as the majority's. The areas where the ACLU run into problems is when rights conflict with each other (like where freedom of speech meets the right to privacy). But these aren't easy situations, and it's difficult to decide which is the more important right to uphold. I think the ACLU mostly gets such a bad rap because people don't hear about WHY they are defending the KKK or Nazi groups, just that they are. When I first heard they defended those scumbags, I thought it was terrible that anyone could defend what they said. However, I did some more research and found out that they really don't agree with their views, just in their right to express their ideas and opinions. People don't realize that if the government can silence groups like that just because the majority doesn't agree with them, then anyone can be silenced. There will come a time when you are in a minority and your rights may be threatend by the majority, but the ACLU will always be there to fight for you.

Following the suggestion elsewhere on these pages that the ACLU should be renamed - How about "Angry, Carping Lefties Union" ??

I think the ACLU is very hypocritial. They fight for freedom of speech and expression, but they don't allow Christians to freely express their beliefs in public.

The mission of the ACLU is to protect the rights of every American as granted by the constitution of the United States of America. The hatred that this organization inspires from the right is downright puzzling. Freedom of expression? Racial equality? Workplace rights? Rights of students? Religious freedom? Personal privacy (cyber and otherwise)? Why are these things so threatening to conservatives in this country? In the movie "The American President," the President of the US (played by Michael Douglass) is attacked in the media by a Senator named Bob Rumpson (played by Richard Dreyfuss) for being a "card carrying member of the ACLU." Douglass' response to this attack captures a lot of my puzzlemenent over the controversy surrounding this group - "Why aren't you, Bob? Why aren't you?"

Does there exist in nature an animal that will eat its own flesh to satisfy a gluttonous hunger? The ACLU alleges to defend the rights of all people; but when it actually goes to work defending one group it is almost always doing so to the detriment of another. The most amazing thing about this organization is that they seem to use very little common sense or logic when they set out on one of their zealous crusades. By their very nature and definition they should be unbiased - yet it is very obvious that they are anything but and equally as apparent that they follow a very well defined far left-winged agenda. Is there an animal that would dine on its own flesh? Well, if there is, it has a lot of illogical and unnatural traits in common with the ACLU.

ACLU is so escential because they work for so many important cases like the rights for immigrants, gays/lesbians, students & women; they work to improve the democracy, against HIV/AIDS & death penalty & they are spokesmen for racial equality, the right to not be driven over by the religious mayority & they're working for acceptable workplace environments! In other words: Only great things! The only right I can't see them cover is the right to euthanasia... :-))

Their mix of good/bad work seems to be pretty evenly split. I wish more people would realizze that the Institute for Justice in D.C. is everything ACLU (mostly) pretends to me -- a real public interest law firm that cares about individual rights! (See also Center for Individual Rights, and Defenders of Property Rights.)