Editing American Civil Liberties Union (section)

===1960s===
The decade from 1954 to 1964 was the most successful period in the ACLU's history.<ref name=W217>Walker, p. 217</ref> Membership rose from 30,000 to 80,000, and by 1965 it had affiliates in seventeen states.<ref name=W217/><ref>Membership numbers are from 1955 and 1965.</ref> During the ACLU's bi-annual conference in Colorado in 1964, the Supreme Court issued rulings on eight cases involving the ACLU; the ACLU prevailed on seven of the eight.<ref name="Walker_d">Walker, p. 236.</ref> The ACLU played a role in Supreme Court decisions reducing censorship of literature and arts, protecting freedom of association, prohibiting racial segregation, excluding religion from public schools, and providing due process protection to criminal suspects.<ref name=W217/> The ACLU's success arose from changing public attitudes; the American populace was more educated, tolerant, and willing to accept unorthodox behavior.<ref name=W217/>

[[File:HugoLaFayetteBlack.jpg|thumb|upright|Supreme Court justice [[Hugo Black]] often endorsed the ACLU's position on the separation of church and state.]]

Legal battles concerning the separation of church and state originated in laws dating to 1938, which required religious instruction in school or provided state funding for religious schools.<ref name=W219>Walker, p. 219</ref> The Catholic church was a leading proponent of such laws, and the primary opponents (the "separationists") were the ACLU, [[Americans United for Separation of Church and State]], and the [[American Jewish Congress]].<ref name=W219/> The ACLU led the challenge in the 1947 ''[[Everson v. Board of Education]]'' case, in which Justice Hugo Black wrote "[t]he First Amendment has erected a wall between church and state.... That wall must be kept high and impregnable."<ref name=W219/><ref>Black quoted by Walker.</ref><ref>Black was paraphrasing Thomas Jefferson, who first employed the metaphor of a wall. Urofsky, Melvin, "Church and State", in Bodenhamer, p. 67.</ref> It was not clear that the Bill of Rights forbid state governments from supporting religious education, and strong legal arguments were made by religious proponents, arguing that the Supreme Court should not act as a "national school board", and that the Constitution did not govern social issues.<ref name=W221>Walker, p. 221.</ref> However, the ACLU and other advocates of church/state separation persuaded the Court to declare such activities unconstitutional.<ref name=W221/> Historian [[Samuel Walker (historian)|Samuel Walker]] writes that the ACLU's "greatest impact on American life" was its role in persuading the Supreme Court to "constitutionalize" so many public controversies.<ref name=W221/>

In 1948, the ACLU prevailed in the ''[[McCollum v. Board of Education]]'' case, which challenged public school religious classes taught by clergy paid for by private funds.<ref name=W221/> The ACLU also won cases challenging schools in New Mexico that were taught by clergy and had crucifixes hanging in the classrooms.<ref name=W222>Walker, p. 222.</ref> In the 1960s, the ACLU, in response to member insistence, turned its attention to the in-class promotion of religion.<ref name=W223>Walker, p. 223</ref> In 1960, 42 percent of American schools included Bible reading.<ref name=W223/> In 1962, the ACLU published a policy statement condemning in-school prayers, observation of religious holidays, and Bible reading.<ref name=W223/> The Supreme Court concurred with the ACLU's position when it prohibited New York's in-school prayers in the 1962 ''[[Engel v. Vitale]]'' decision.<ref>Walker, p. 224</ref> Religious factions across the country rebelled against the anti-prayer decisions, leading them to propose the [[School Prayer Amendment|School Prayer Constitutional Amendment]], which declared in-school prayer legal.<ref name=W225>Walker, p. 225.</ref> The ACLU participated in a lobbying effort against the amendment, and the 1966 congressional vote failed to obtain the required two-thirds majority.<ref name=W225/>

However, not all cases were victories; ACLU lost cases in 1949 and 1961 which challenged state laws requiring commercial businesses to close on Sunday, the Christian Sabbath.<ref name=W222/> The Supreme Court has never overturned such laws, although some states subsequently revoked many of the laws under pressure from commercial interests.<ref name=W222/>

Cities across America routinely banned movies because they were deemed to be "harmful", "offensive", or "immoral"{{spaced ndash}}censorship which was validated by the 1915 ''[[Mutual Film Corp. v. Industrial Commission of Ohio|Mutual v. Ohio]]'' Supreme Court decision which held movies to be mere commerce, undeserving of first amendment protection.<ref name=W231>Walker, p. 231.</ref> The film ''[[L'Amore (film)|The Miracle]]'' was banned in New York in 1951 at the behest of the Catholic Church, but the ACLU supported the film's distributor in an appeal of the ban, and won a major victory in the 1952 decision ''[[Joseph Burstyn, Inc. v. Wilson]]''.<ref name=W231/> Further legal actions by the ACLU successfully defended films such as ''[[M (1951 film)|M]]'' and ''[[La Ronde (1950 film)|la Ronde]]'', leading the eventual dismantling of movie censorship.<ref name=W231/><ref>Walker, p. 235.</ref> Hollywood continued employing self-censorship with its own [[Production Code]], but in 1956 the ACLU called on Hollywood to abolish the Code.<ref name=W233>Walker, p. 233.</ref>
The ACLU lost an [[Roth v. United States|important press censorship case]] when, in 1957, the Supreme Court upheld the obscenity conviction of publisher [[Samuel Roth]] for distributing adult magazines.<ref>Walker, p. 234.</ref> As late as 1953, books such as ''[[Tropic of Cancer (novel)|Tropic of Cancer]]'' and ''[[From Here to Eternity (novel)|From Here to Eternity]]'' were still banned.<ref name=W227>Walker, p. 227.</ref> But public standards rapidly became more liberal through the 1960s, and obscenity was notoriously difficult to define, so by 1971, obscenity prosecutions had halted.<ref name="Walker_d" /><ref name=W227/>

====Racial discrimination====
Several civil liberties organizations worked together for progress on the [[civil rights movement]], including the [[National Association for the Advancement of Colored People]] (NAACP), the ACLU, and the [[American Jewish Congress]].<ref name=W238>Walker, p. 238.</ref> The NAACP took primary responsibility for Supreme Court cases (often led by lead NAACP attorney [[Thurgood Marshall]]), with the ACLU focusing on police misconduct, and supporting the NAACP with [[amicus brief]]s.<ref name=W238/> In 1954, the ACLU filed an [[amicus brief]] in the case of ''[[Brown v. Board of Education]]'', which led to the ban on racial segregation in US [[public school (government funded)#United States|public schools]].<ref>ACLU, ''ACLU Amicus Brief in Brown v. Board of Education'', October 11, 1952 ([https://www.aclu.org/racialjustice/gen/15901lgl19521011.html PDF brief] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080423220108/http://www.aclu.org/racialjustice/gen/15901lgl19521011.html |date=April 23, 2008 }}).</ref> Southern states instituted a McCarthyism-style witch-hunt against the NAACP, attempting to force it to disclose membership lists. The ACLU's fight against racism was not limited to segregation; in 1964, the ACLU provided key support to plaintiffs, primarily lower-income urban residents, in ''[[Reynolds v. Sims]]'', which required states to establish the voting districts following the "one person, one vote" principle.<ref>Walker, pp. 255–57.</ref>

====Police misconduct====
The ACLU regularly tackled police misconduct issues, starting with the 1932 case ''[[Powell v. Alabama]]'' (right to an attorney), and including 1942's ''[[Betts v. Brady]]'' (right to an attorney), and 1951's ''[[Rochin v. California]]'' (involuntary stomach pumping).<ref name="Walker, p. 246"/> In the late 1940s, several ACLU local affiliates established permanent committees to address policing issues.<ref>Walker, p. 247.</ref> During the 1950s and 1960s, the ACLU was responsible for substantially advancing the legal protections against police misconduct.<ref>Walker, pp. 246–50.</ref> In 1958, the Philadelphia affiliate was responsible for causing the City of Philadelphia to create the nation's first civilian police review board.<ref>Walker, pp. 246–48.</ref> In 1959, the Illinois affiliate published the first report in the nation, ''Secret Detention by the Chicago Police'' which documented unlawful detention by police.<ref>Walker, pp. 248–49.</ref>

Some of the most notable ACLU successes came in the 1960s when the ACLU prevailed in a string of cases limiting the power of police to gather evidence; in 1961's ''[[Mapp v. Ohio]]'', the Supreme court required states to obtain a warrant before searching a person's home.<ref>Walker, pp. 249–51.</ref> The ''[[Gideon v. Wainwright]]'' decision in 1963 provided legal representation to indigents.<ref>Walker, pp. 252–53.</ref> In 1964, the ACLU persuaded the Court, in ''[[Escobedo v. Illinois]]'', to permit suspects to have an attorney present during questioning.<ref>Walker, p. 250.</ref> And, in 1966, ''[[Miranda v. Arizona]]'' federal decision required police to notify suspects of their constitutional rights, which was later extended to [[Minor (law)|juveniles]] in the following year's ''[[in re Gault]]'' (1967) federal ruling.<ref>Walker, pp. 250–51.</ref> Although many law enforcement officials criticized the ACLU for expanding the rights of suspects, police officers also used the services of the ACLU. For example, when the ACLU represented New York City policemen in their lawsuit, which objected to searches of their workplace lockers.<ref>Walker, p. 252.</ref> In the late 1960s, civilian review boards in New York City and Philadelphia were abolished, over the ACLU's objection.<ref>Walker, p. 274.</ref>

====Civil liberties revolution====
The 1960s was a tumultuous era in the United States, and public interest in civil liberties underwent explosive growth.<ref name="Walkerpp">Walker, pp. 257, 261–62.</ref> Civil liberties actions in the 1960s were often led by young people and often employed tactics such as [[sit in]]s and marches. Protests were often peaceful but sometimes employed militant tactics.<ref>Walker, pp. 262–64.</ref> The ACLU played a central role in all major civil liberties debates of the 1960s, including new fields such as [[gay rights]], [[prisoner's rights]], abortion, rights of the poor, and the death penalty.<ref name="Walkerpp" /> Membership in the ACLU increased from 52,000 at the beginning of the decade to 104,000 in 1970.<ref name=W262>Walker, p. 262</ref> In 1960, there were affiliates in seven states, and by 1974 there were affiliates in 46 states.<ref name=W262 /><ref>The count of affiliates is of affiliates with permanent staff.</ref> During the 1960s, the ACLU underwent a major transformation in tactics; it shifted emphasis from legal appeals (generally involving [[amicus briefs]] submitted to the Supreme Court) to direct representation of defendants when they were initially arrested.<ref name=W262 /> At the same time, the ACLU transformed its style from "disengaged and elitist" to "emotionally engaged".<ref>Walker, p. 263. Characterizations by Samuel Walker.</ref> The ACLU published a breakthrough document in 1963, titled ''How Americans Protest'', which was borne of frustration with the slow progress in battling racism, and which endorsed aggressive, even militant protest techniques.<ref>Walker, pp. 263–64.</ref>

After four African-American college students [[Greensboro sit-ins|staged a sit-in]] in a segregated North Carolina department store, the [[sit-in movement]] gained momentum across the United States.<ref>Walker, p. 261.</ref> During 1960–61, the ACLU defended black students arrested for demonstrating in North Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana.<ref name=W263 /> The ACLU also provided legal help for the [[Freedom Riders|Freedom Rides]] in 1961, the [[Civil rights movement#Integration of Mississippi universities, 1956–1965|integration of the University of Mississippi]], the [[Birmingham campaign]] in 1963, and the 1964 [[Freedom Summer]].<ref name=W263>Walker, p. 263.</ref> The NAACP was responsible for managing most sit-in related cases that made it to the Supreme Court, winning nearly every decision.<ref name=W264>Walker, p. 264.</ref> But it fell to the ACLU and other legal volunteer efforts to provide legal representation to hundreds of protestors{{spaced ndash}}white and black{{spaced ndash}}who were arrested while protesting in the South.<ref name=W264 /> The ACLU joined with other civil liberties groups to form the Lawyers Constitutional Defense Committee (LCDC), which provided legal representation to many protesters.<ref>Walker, pp. 264–65.</ref> The ACLU provided the majority of the funding for the LCDC.<ref>Walker, p. 266.</ref>

In 1964, the ACLU opened up a major office in Atlanta, Georgia, dedicated to serving Southern issues.<ref>Walker, p. 267.</ref> Much of the ACLU's progress in the South was due to [[Charles Morgan Jr.]], the charismatic leader of the Atlanta office. Morgan was responsible for desegregating juries (''[[Whitus v. Georgia]]''), desegregating prisons (''[[Lee v. Washington]]''), and [[Disenfranchisement after the Reconstruction era|reforming election laws]].<ref>Walker, pp. 268–69.</ref> In 1966, the southern office successfully represented African-American congressman [[Julian Bond]] in ''[[Bond v. Floyd]]'', after the [[Georgia House of Representatives]] refused to admit Bond into the legislature on the basis that he was an admitted pacifist opposed to the ongoing Vietnam War.<ref>Walker, pp. 270–71.</ref> Another widely publicized case defended by Morgan was that of Army doctor Howard Levy, who was convicted of refusing to train [[Green Berets]]. Despite raising the defense that the Green Berets were committing war crimes in Vietnam, Levy lost on appeal in ''Parker v. Levy'', 417 US 733 (1974).<ref>Walker, p. 271.</ref>

In 1969, the ACLU won a significant victory for free speech when it defended [[Dick Gregory]] after he was arrested for peacefully protesting against the mayor of Chicago. The court ruled in ''[[Gregory v. Chicago]]'' that a speaker cannot be arrested for disturbing the peace when hostility is initiated by someone in the audience, as that would amount to a "heckler's veto".<ref>[https://www.aclu.org/successes-american-civil-liberties-union ACLU list of successes]; the case was ''Gregory v. Chicago'', 394 US 111.</ref>

====Vietnam War====
The ACLU was at the center of several legal aspects of the Vietnam war: defending [[draft resister]]s, challenging the constitutionality of the war, the [[Watergate scandal|potential impeachment of Richard Nixon]], and the use of national security concerns to preemptively [[Censorship|censor]] newspapers.

David J. Miller was the first person prosecuted for burning his [[draft card]]. The New York affiliate of the ACLU appealed his 1965 conviction (367 F.2d 72: ''United States of America v. David J. Miller'', 1966), but the Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal. Two years later, the Massachusetts affiliate took the card-burning case of David O'Brien to the Supreme Court, arguing that the act of burning was a form of symbolic speech, but the Supreme Court upheld the conviction in ''[[United States v. O'Brien]]'', 391 US 367 (1968).<ref name="Walker_e">Walker, p. 280.</ref> Thirteen-year-old Junior High student Mary Tinker wore a black armband to school in 1965 to object to the war and was suspended from school. The ACLU appealed her case to the Supreme Court and won a victory in ''[[Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District]]''. This critical case established that the government may not establish "enclaves" such as schools or prisons where all rights are forfeited.<ref name="Walker_e" />

[[File:US Flag Burn.jpg|thumb|left|The ACLU contends that the Bill of Rights protects individuals who burn the U.S. flag as a form of expression.]]
The ACLU defended Sydney Street, who was arrested for burning an American flag to protest the reported assassination of civil rights leader [[James Meredith]]. In the ''[[Street v. New York]]'' decision, the court agreed with the ACLU that encouraging the country to abandon one of its national symbols was a constitutionally protected form of expression.<ref>Walker, p. 280. Meredith, in fact, was not assassinated.</ref> The ACLU successfully defended Paul Cohen, who was arrested for wearing a jacket with the words "fuck the draft" on its back while he walked through the Los Angeles courthouse. The Supreme Court, in ''[[Cohen v. California]]'', held that the vulgarity of the wording was essential to convey the intensity of the message.<ref name=W281>Walker, p. 281.</ref>

Non-war-related free speech rights were also advanced during the Vietnam war era; in 1969, the ACLU defended a [[Ku Klux Klan]] member who advocated long-term violence against the government, and the Supreme Court concurred with the ACLU's argument in the landmark decision ''[[Brandenburg v. Ohio]]'', which held that only speech which advocated ''imminent'' violence could be outlawed.<ref name=W281/>

A major crisis gripped the ACLU in 1968 when a debate erupted over whether to defend [[Benjamin Spock]] and the Boston Five against federal charges that they encouraged draftees to avoid the draft. The ACLU board was deeply split over whether to defend the activists; half the board harbored anti-war sentiments and felt that the ACLU should lend its resources to the cause of the Boston Five. The other half of the board believed that civil liberties were not at stake and the ACLU would be taking a political stance. Behind the debate was the longstanding ACLU tradition that it was politically impartial and provided legal advice without regard to the defendants' political views. The board finally agreed to a compromise solution that permitted the ACLU to defend the anti-war activists without endorsing the activist's political views. Some critics of the ACLU suggest that the ACLU became a partisan political organization following the Spock case.<ref name=W2845>Walker, pp. 284–85.</ref> After the [[Kent State shootings]] in 1970, ACLU leaders took another step toward politics by passing a resolution condemning the Vietnam War. The resolution was based on various legal arguments, including civil liberties violations and claiming that the war was illegal.<ref>Walker, p. 286.</ref>

Also in 1968, the ACLU held an internal symposium to discuss its dual roles: providing "direct" legal support (defense for accused in their initial trial, benefiting only the individual defendant) and appellate support (providing amicus briefs during the appeal process, to establish widespread legal precedent).<ref name=W285>Walker, p. 285.</ref> Historically, the ACLU was known for its appellate work, which led to landmark Supreme Court decisions, but by 1968, 90% of the ACLU's legal activities involved direct representation. The symposium concluded that both roles were valid for the ACLU.<ref name=W285/>