The American Civil Rights Union (ACRU) is an American legal organization founded by former

Reagan Administration Ronald Reagan's tenure as the 40th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1981, and ended on January 20, 1989. Reagan, a Republican from California, took office following a landslide victory over D ...

official Robert B. Carleson in 1998 as a conservative counter to the

American Civil Liberties Union The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States". T ...

History

Due to a lack of resources, the ACRU originally restricted itself to

amicus brief An ''amicus curiae'' (; ) is an individual or organization who is not a party to a legal case, but who is permitted to assist a court by offering information, expertise, or insight that has a bearing on the issues in the case. The decision on ...

s, having filed briefs in 15 cases by 2008. It expanded into writing on legal issues and having its spokespeople appear on talk radio and TV. When founder Carleson died in 2006, the Board of Directors elected to name his widow, Susan Carleson, a former Reagan administration official, Chairman and CEO. The ACRU filed its first amicus brief in ''

Boy Scouts of America v. Dale ''Boy Scouts of America et al. v. Dale'', 530 U.S. 640 (2000), was a landmark decision of the US Supreme Court, decided on June 28, 2000, that held that the constitutional right to freedom of association allowed the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) to ...

'', a case in which the Supreme Court decided that the Boy Scouts could not be legally forced to retain openly gay adult Scout leaders. Other issues include ''

Bush v. Palm Beach County Canvassing Board ''Bush v. Palm Beach County Canvassing Board'', 531 U.S. 70 (2000), was a Supreme Court of the United States, United States Supreme Court decision involving Florida voters during the 2000 United States presidential election, 2000 presidential elec ...

'' in December 2000, the

Mount Soledad cross controversy Mount is often used as part of the name of specific mountains, e.g. Mount Everest. Mount or Mounts may also refer to: Places * Mount, Cornwall, a village in Warleggan parish, England * Mount, Perranzabuloe, a hamlet in Perranzabuloe parish, C ...

and other

First Amendment First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...

cases, the ''

District of Columbia v. Heller ''District of Columbia v. Heller'', 554 U.S. 570 (2008), is a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects an individual's right to keep and bear arms, unconnected with service i ...

Second Amendment The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds eac ...

case and an Indiana voting-rights case regarding the use of photo ID. In 2010, the ACRU filed a brief arguing that the names of signers of a

Washington state Washington (), officially the State of Washington, is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. Named for George Washington—the first U.S. president—the state was formed from the western part of the Washington ...

petition against gay marriage should not be published, likening gay rights activists to

brownshirt The (; SA; literally "Storm Detachment") was the original paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party. It played a significant role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power in the 1920s and 1930s. Its primary purposes were providing protection for Nazi ral ...

Leadership

The ACRU is chaired by Susan A. Carleson who took on the leadership of the organization following the passing of her husband Robert B. Carleson in 2006.. Kenneth A. Klukowski is the ACRU General Counsel and

Robert H. Knight Robert H. Knight (born April 23, 1951) is an American conservative writer and activist. He was a draftsman of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which barred federal recognition of same-sex marriage. DOMA was invalidated by the Supreme Court in '' ...

is a Senior Fellow. The board of directors is chaired by Susan Carleson, it includes former Attorney General

Ed Meese Edwin Meese III (born December 2, 1931) is an American attorney, law professor, author and member of the Republican Party who served in official capacities within the Ronald Reagan's gubernatorial administration (1967–1974), the Reagan pre ...

, and

Morton Blackwell Morton C. Blackwell (born November 16, 1939, La Jara, Colorado) is an American conservative activist. He is the founder and president of the Leadership Institute (established 1979), a 501(c)3 non-profit educational foundation that teaches politi ...

. The policy board initially included

Robert Bork Robert Heron Bork (March 1, 1927 – December 19, 2012) was an American jurist who served as the solicitor general of the United States from 1973 to 1977. A professor at Yale Law School by occupation, he later served as a judge on the U.S. Court ...

, Ed Meese,

William Bradford Reynolds William Bradford Reynolds (June 21, 1942 – September 14, 2019) was an American attorney who served as the United States Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division from 1981 to 1988. Reynolds was Senior Counsel in BakerBotts Anti ...

Curtin Winsor Curtin Winsor Jr. (born April 28, 1939) is a former Ambassador of the United States to Costa Rica. Biography Winsor was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on April 28, 1939, and graduated from Brown University in 1961 with a degree in English ...

and

James Q. Wilson James Quinn Wilson (May 27, 1931 – March 2, 2012) was an American political scientist and an authority on public administration. Most of his career was spent as a professor at UCLA and Harvard University. He was the chairman of the Council of A ...

. It was later joined by

Walter E. Williams Walter Edward Williams (March 31, 1936December 1, 2020) was an American economist, commentator, and academic. Williams was the John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics at George Mason University, as well as a syndicated columnist an ...

and

Kenneth W. Starr Kenneth Winston Starr (July 21, 1946 – September 13, 2022) was an American lawyer and judge who authored the Starr Report, which led to the impeachment of Bill Clinton. He headed an investigation of members of the Clinton administration, known ...

Court cases

The ACRU sued Starr county's elections office in 2016 for allegedly violating Section 8 of the National Voter Registration Act by not maintaining clean voter rolls. in September 2018, Starr County agreed to $55,000 in attorneys fees as part of the settlement agreement.

Amicus briefs

* 9/11/2018 The ACRU Files an amicus brief in ''Timbs V. Indiana'' urging the Supreme Court to apply the right against excessive bail to the states through the Privileges or Immunities Clause of the Constitution. *7/25/2018 Michael C. Turzai, Speaker of the

Pennsylvania House of Representatives The Pennsylvania House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Pennsylvania General Assembly, the legislature of the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. There are 203 members, elected for two-year terms from single member districts. It ...

, et al., Petitioners v. Gretchen Brandt, et al. Amicus filed defending Legislative Authority Over

Redistricting Redistribution (re-districting in the United States and in the Philippines) is the process by which electoral districts are added, removed, or otherwise changed. Redistribution is a form of boundary delimitation that changes electoral dist ...

. *4/10/2018 ACRU files an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Greater Birmingham Ministries v. Merrill, arguing that the appeals court should hold that Alabama's voter-ID law is permitted by the federal Voting Rights Act (VRA). *3/9/2018 ACRU Files Supreme Court Brief in Support of President's Travel Restrictions arguing why Proclamation 9645 is fully consistent with the Constitution. Donald J. Trump, President of the United States, et al., Petitioners v. Hawaii, et al. *2/2/2018 ACRU files an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in North Carolina, et al., Applicants v. Sandra Little Covington, et al. arguing that (1) the district court used a novel theory of racial gerrymandering to review the legislature's map that removed all racial data (2) the district court imposed a de facto quota that the U.S. Supreme Court rejected last decade, and (3) the district court's decision erodes the federal judiciary's credibility, because the court so eagerly displaced the North Carolina General Assembly as the primary mapmaker *1/18/2018 ACRU submits amicus brief on Robert A. Rucho, et al., Applicants v. Common Cause, et al. arguing that the district court's demand for a redrawn legislative map was unreasonable, because it created a new set of incredibly complex tests and then gave the North Carolina legislature just 14 days to create a new map.

References

External links