Editing American Civil Liberties Union (section)

====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/>