Editing American Civil Liberties Union (section)

===1910s and '20s===
====Origins====
[[File:CrystalEastman.jpeg|thumb|[[Crystal Eastman]] was one of the co-founders of the CLB, the predecessor to the ACLU.]]

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]].<ref>Walker, pp. 17, 20.</ref> The focus of the CLB was on [[freedom of speech]], primarily anti-war speech, and on supporting [[conscientious objector]]s who did not want to serve in World War I.<ref>Walker, pp. 23–24, 30.</ref> In 1918, Crystal Eastman resigned from the organization due to health issues.<ref>Walker, p. 30.</ref> 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.<ref name=W47>Walker, p. 47.</ref>

The CLB directors concurred, and on January 19, 1920, they formed an organization under a new name, the American Civil Liberties Union.<ref name=W47/> 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.<ref name=W47/> Like the CLB, the NAACP pursued litigation to work on civil rights, including efforts to overturn the [[Disfranchisement after Reconstruction era (United States)|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.<ref>Walker, p. 66.</ref> The ACLU was directed by an executive committee and was not particularly democratic or egalitarian. New Yorkers dominated the ACLU's headquarters.<ref>Walker, p. 67.</ref> Most ACLU funding came from philanthropies, such as the [[Garland Fund]].<ref name="Walker">Walker, p. 70.</ref>

[[Lucille Bernheimer Milner]] was cofounder of the American Civil Liberties Union. She also served for a time as Executive Secretary.<ref name="The New York Times">{{cite web |title=Lucille Milner, 87, A Founder of A.C.L.U |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1975/08/18/archives/lucille-milner-87-a-founder-of-aclu.html |website=The New York Times |access-date=6 August 2024 |date=18 August 1975}}</ref>

====Free speech era====
[[File:Norman Thomas 1937.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Norman Thomas]] was one of the early leaders of the ACLU.]]

During the 1920s, the ACLU's primary focus was on freedom of speech in general and speech within the labor movement particularly.<ref>Walker, p. 55</ref> 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 the [[American Legion]], the [[National Civic Federation]], and Industrial Defense Association and the Allied Patriotic Societies.<ref>Walker, p. 57.</ref> 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.<ref name="Walker_b">Walker, p. 52.</ref> Another group, including [[Walter Nelles]] and [[Walter Pollak]], felt that lawsuits taken to the Supreme Court were the best way to achieve change.<ref name=W53>Walker, p. 53.</ref>
In addition to labor, the ACLU also led efforts in non-labor arenas, for example, promoting free speech in public schools.<ref>Walker, p, 58.</ref> The ACLU was banned from speaking in New York public schools in 1921.<ref>Walker, p. 59.</ref> The ACLU, working with the [[NAACP]], also supported racial discrimination cases.<ref name="Walker, p. 60"/> The ACLU defended free speech regardless of espoused opinions. For example, 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.<ref>Walker, p. 61.</ref> There were some civil rights that the ACLU did not make an effort to defend in the 1920s, including censorship of the arts, [[Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution|government search and seizure]] issues, [[Privacy laws of the United States|right to privacy]], or [[wiretapping]].<ref>Walker, p. 68.</ref>

Government officials routinely hounded the [[Communist Party USA]], leading it to be the primary client of the ACLU.<ref name=W63>Walker, p. 63.</ref> 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.<ref name=W63/> 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 the USSR.<ref name=W63/> This uneasy relationship between the two groups continued for decades.<ref name=W63/>

====Public schools====
Five years after the ACLU was formed, the organization had virtually no success to show for its efforts.<ref>Walker, p. 71.</ref> That changed in 1925, when the ACLU persuaded [[John T. Scopes]] to defy Tennessee's anti-[[evolution]] law in ''[[Scopes Trial|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 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.<ref>University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law, [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/scopes/scopes.htm "''Tennessee v. John Scopes'': The 'Monkey Trial' (1925)"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150209210437/http://law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/scopes/scopes.htm |date=February 9, 2015 }}, ''Famous Trials in American History'', last updated April 25, 2005 (last visited January 7, 2008).</ref><ref>{{cite web|archive-date=April 9, 2004|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040409145806/http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/scopes/scopeschrono.html|title=The Evolution-Creationism Controversy: A Chronology|url=http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/scopes/scopeschrono.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

The Scopes trial was a phenomenal public relations success for the ACLU.<ref>Walker, p. 73.</ref> The ACLU became well known across America, and the case led to the first endorsement of the ACLU by a major US newspaper.<ref>Walker, p. 75. The newspaper was the ''St. Louis Post Dispatch''.</ref> 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]]''.<ref>Berkman, Michael (2010), ''Evolution, Creationism, and the Battle to Control America's Classrooms'', Cambridge University Press, pp. 100–01.</ref>

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 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.<ref>Walker, pp. 78–79. The case was in New Jersey, ''State v. Butterworth''. Decision quoted by Walker.</ref>

The most important ACLU case of the 1920s was ''[[Gitlow v. New York]]'', in which [[Benjamin Gitlow]] was arrested for violating a state law against inciting anarchy and violence when he distributed literature promoting communism.<ref>Walker, p. 79.</ref> 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.<ref>Walker, p. 80.</ref>

The [[Oregon Compulsory Education Act]] required almost all children in Oregon between eight and sixteen years of age to attend [[Public school (government funded)|public school]] by 1926.{{sfn|Kauffman|1982|p=282}} Associate Director [[Roger Nash Baldwin]], a personal friend of [[Luke E. Hart]], the then–Supreme Advocate and future [[Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus|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.{{sfn|Kauffman|1982|p=283}} The case became known as ''[[Pierce v. Society of Sisters]]'', a [[United States Supreme Court]] decision that significantly expanded coverage of the [[Due Process Clause]] in the [[Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|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.{{sfn|Alley|1999|pp=41–44}} It upheld the religious freedom of parents to educate their children in religious schools.

====Free speech expansion====
Leaders of the ACLU were divided on the best tactics to use to promote civil liberties. Felix Frankfurter felt that legislation 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.<ref>Walker, p. 81</ref> A series of Supreme Court decisions in the 1920s foretold a changing national atmosphere; anti-radical emotions were diminishing, and there was a growing willingness to protect freedom of speech and assembly via court decisions.<ref>Walker, p. 82. The cases included Gitlow (1925), Whitney (1927), Powell (1932), and Patterson (1935).</ref>

[[File:H l mencken.jpg|thumb|The ACLU defended [[H. L. Mencken]] when he was arrested for distributing banned literature.]]

Starting in 1926, the ACLU expanded its free speech activities to encompass censorship of art and literature.<ref name=W82>Walker, p. 82.</ref> 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.<ref name=W82/> The ACLU went on to win additional victories, including the landmark case ''[[United States v. One Book Called Ulysses]]'' in 1933, which reversed a ban by the Customs Department against the book ''[[Ulysses (novel)|Ulysses]]'' by [[James Joyce]].<ref name=W86>Walker, p. 86.</ref> 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 the distribution of sex education information based on the premise that it was obscene and led to promiscuous behavior.<ref name=W85>Walker, p. 85.</ref> [[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".<ref name=W85/> The success prompted the ACLU to broaden their freedom of speech efforts beyond labor and political speech to encompass movies, press, radio, and literature.<ref name=W85/> The ACLU formed the National Committee on Freedom from Censorship in 1931 to coordinate this effort.<ref name=W85/> By the early 1930s, [[censorship in the United States]] was diminishing.<ref name=W86/>

Two major victories in the 1930s cemented the ACLU's campaign to promote free speech. In ''[[Stromberg v. California]]'', decided in 1931, 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 [[Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|14th amendment]] to subject states to the requirements of the [[First Amendment to the United States Constitution|First Amendment]].<ref>Walker, p. 90</ref> In ''[[Near v. Minnesota]]'', also decided in 1931, the Supreme Court ruled that states may not exercise [[prior restraint]] and prevent a newspaper from publishing, simply because the newspaper had a reputation for being scandalous.<ref>Walker, p. 91.</ref>