Description

Rights are not self-executing; they need cases and controversies brought by individuals and organizations like the ACLU, which was founded by Crystal Eastman and Roger Baldwin in the aftermath of World War I, the Palmer Raids and the Red hysteria. From its inception until today the ACLU has been at the forefront protecting and extending those rights and liberties enshrined in the Bill of Rights and the 14th amendment.

The ACLU has been identified with issues that continue to divide the Supreme Court and the nation, including a woman's personal autonomy and limitations on her ability to compete equally with men, whether classifications in the law based on race, sex or sexual orientation are illegitimate, and the appropriate role of religion in the public square. But the two areas in which the ACLU has been most zealous, some would say over-zealous, are freedom of speech and the protection of the rights of criminal defendants.

This SDG will examine those issues associated with the ACLU and the milestone cases it fostered in the development of civil rights and civil liberties. In this endeavor we will be guided by the recently published Fight of the Century, a collection of essays written by some of our pre-eminent writers exploring the meaning and impact of those cases---a confluence of judicial opinion and social significance, allowing each of us to reflect on how these issues impact us.

Weekly Topics

The role of the Bill of Rights in the drafting and ratification of the Constitution; the significance of the Civil War amendments; the birth and growth of the ACLU
The ACLU and the Roberts Court
Political speech
Obscene and hate speech
Privacy and abortion rights
Criminal justice system
Money in politics
Classifications based on race
Classifications based on sex
The powers of the president
Classifications based on sexual orientation
Establishment and free exercise of religion
The constitutional guarantee of due process.
The Constitution in the schoolhouse