Key Issues
The ACLU is our nation's guardian of liberty, working daily in courts, legislatures and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties that the Constitution and laws of the United States guarantee everyone in this country.
Sort Issues: Categorically | Alphabetically
- Abortion
- Access to Health Care
- Affirmative Action
- Ballot Access
- Biological Technologies
- Birth Control
- Campaign Finance Reform
- Campaign Finance Reform
- Capital Punishment
- Censorship
- Children's Rights
- Clemency
- Conditions of Confinement
- Conditions of Confinement
- Consumer Privacy
- Criminal Justice
- Criminal Justice
- Criminal Justice-Prisons
- Death Penalty
- Detention
- Discrimination
- Dissent
- Drug Law Reform
- Drug Testing
- Due Process
- Education
- Education
- Election Reform
- Employment
- Ex-Offenders
- Felon Enfranchisement
- Flag Desecration
- Free Exercise of Religion
- Free Speech
- Freedom of Speech and Belief
- Government-Funded Religion
- HIV / AIDS
- HIV/AIDS Discrimination
- HIV/AIDS Outreach
- Health-Based Solutions
- Human Rights
- Human Rights
- ICE / Police Abuse
- Ideological Exclusion
- Immigrant Detention
- Immigrants' Rights
- Immigrants' Rights
- Immigration Detention
- Immigration Discrimination
- Indigent Defense
- Innocence
- Internet Censorship
- Internet Free Speech
- Internet Privacy
- Juvenile Justice
- LGBT Discrimination
- LGBT Rights
- Marijuana Law Reform
- Medical Care
- Medical Privacy
- Mental Health Care
- Mental Illness
- Minority Voting Rights
- National Security
- National Security
- Parenting
- Pregnancy
- Prevention-Education
- Prisoners' Rights
- Privacy-Confidentiality
- Quality of Counsel
- Racial Justice
- Racial Justice
- Racial Justice
- Racial Profiling
- Redistricting
- Relationships
- Religion & Belief
- Religion and Reproductive Rights
- Religion and Schools
- Reproductive Freedom
- Restriction of Rights
- Right to Protest
- Search and Seizure
- Secrecy
- Sentencing and Penalties
- Sex Education
- Student Speech
- Students
- Surveillance
- Technology and Liberty
- Testing-Reporting
- The Public Square
- Torture
- Transgender
- USA PATRIOT Act
- Unequal Justice
- Violence Against Women
- Voting Rights
- Women in Prison
- Women's Rights
- Women's Rights
- Workplace Privacy
- Workplace Rights
- Youth
- Youth & Schools
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The ACLU Capital Punishment Project is fighting for the end of the death penalty by supporting moratorium and repeal movements through public education and advocacy. We are engaged in systemic reform of the death penalty process, and case-specific litigation highlighting some of its fundamental flaws.
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The ACLU Drug Law Reform Project's goal is to end punitive drug policies that cause the widespread violation of constitutional and human rights, as well as unprecedented levels of incarceration.
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Freedom of speech is protected in the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights and is guaranteed to all Americans. Since 1920, the ACLU has worked to preserve our freedom of speech. Learn more and take action to protect the right to free speech.
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The ACLU AIDS Project uses impact litigation, public education and advocacy at the state and federal level to fight discrimination against people with HIV/AIDS.
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The ACLU Human Rights Program works to ensure that the U.S. government complies with universal human rights principles in addition to the U.S. Constitution. The Program uses human rights strategies to complement existing ACLU advocacy.
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The Constitution guarantees the fundamental rights and civil liberties of every person in this country. Upholding the rights of the politically disenfranchised is vital; when the government has the power to deny legal rights and due process to one group of people, it puts all our rights in danger.
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The LGBT Project fights discrimination and moves public opinion through the courts, legislatures and public education across five issue areas: Relationships, Youth & Schools, Parenting, Gender Identity and Expression and Discrimination in Employment, Housing and other areas.
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Illegal government spying, indefinite detention without charge or trial and government-sponsored torture programs after 9/11 transcended the bounds of law and our most treasured values in the name of national security. There has never been a more urgent need to restore individual freedoms, due process rights and our system of checks and balances.
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The ACLU's National Prison Project is dedicated to ensuring that our nation’s prisons, jails, juvenile facilities and immigration detention centers comply with the Constitution, federal law, and international human rights principles, and to addressing the crisis of over-incarceration in the U.S. Since 1972, the Project has fought unconstitutional conditions of confinement through public education, advocacy, and successful litigation on behalf of more than 100,000 men, women and children.
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The Racial Justice Program aims to preserve and extend the constitutional rights of people of color. Committed to combating racism in all its forms, our advocacy includes litigation, community organizing and training, legislative initiatives, and public education.
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The right to practice religion, or no religion at all, is among the most fundamental of the freedoms guaranteed by the Bill of Rights. The ACLU works to ensure that this essential freedom is protected by keeping the government out of religion.
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The ACLU's Reproductive Freedom Project protects everyone's right to make informed decisions free from government interference about whether and when to become a parent. Learn more about our work in reproductive health and take action to protect rights guaranteed to all Americans.
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The Technology & Liberty Program monitors the interplay between cutting-edge technology and civil liberties, actively promoting responsible uses of technology that enhance privacy and freedom, while opposing those that undermine our freedoms and move us closer to a surveillance society.
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Established in 1965, the ACLU Voting Rights Project has worked to protect the gains in political participation won by racial and language minorities since passage of the historic Voting Rights Act (VRA) that same year. The Project has filed more than 300 lawsuits to enforce the provisions of the VRA and the U.S. Constitution.
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Women have made great strides in the fight for equality, but gender bias continues to create huge barriers for many, especially poor women, women of color, and immigrant women. Ongoing struggles include ensuring equal economic and educational opportunities, ending gender-based violence, and addressing the harms to women and girls in the criminal justice system. Since 1972 the ACLU has been working to systematically end sex discrimination and ensure that all women and girls are able to lead lives of dignity.
