The American Civil Liberties Union built its name defending speech almost everyone hated, including a neo-Nazi group's right to march through Skokie, Illinois, a town full of Holocaust survivors, in 1978. Decades later its own staff and members are openly split over whether some speech is still worth defending, a fight that spilled into public view after the deadly 2017 white-nationalist rally in Charlottesville. The ACLU is a century-old civil liberties organization, and over the last decade it has also become one of the most active spenders in state-level elections. This profile covers the national ACLU and its related national entities, not its 50-plus state affiliates, which are separate organizations.
- Runs a record $25.5 million voter-education program across nine states for the 2026 midterms, plus a separate $24.5 million election-safeguarding effort.
- Names abortion, transgender rights, immigration, and voting as top priorities and lobbies for bills like the Equality Act and the Women's Health Protection Act.
- Broke its own no-nominee rule to oppose Brett Kavanaugh with a seven-figure ad blitz, only the fourth Supreme Court nominee it has ever opposed.
- Does not fit a simple label: it represented the NRA at the Supreme Court and won 9-0, defends the Citizens United ruling, and has repeatedly sued Democratic administrations over asylum.
- Exploded in size after 2016, taking in about $79 million online in a matter of months, including $24 million in the two days after the travel ban, as membership doubled to roughly 1.2 million.
The Free Speech Fight Inside Its Own Walls
In 1934, the ACLU's board decided the First Amendment protects even Nazis and other hate groups, a position it laid out in a pamphlet titled "Shall We Defend Free Speech for Nazis in America?" [1] That principle produced its most famous case: defending a neo-Nazi group's right to march in Skokie in 1978.
The old consensus cracked after Charlottesville. The ACLU's Virginia affiliate had gone to court to protect the permit for the 2017 "Unite the Right" rally, and a counter-protester was killed. One Virginia board member resigned, writing that what is legal and what is right are sometimes different, and the national office soon said it would no longer represent hate groups that plan to march while armed. [2]
A 2021 New York Times investigation described an internal "identity crisis": older staff who defend speech no matter its content, and newer staff who argue that a rigid reading of the First Amendment can undercut the fight for racial justice. [3] David Goldberger, the lawyer who argued the Skokie case, told the paper that liberals were leaving the First Amendment behind. The ACLU pushed back in a 2024 post titled "Defending Speech We Hate," saying claims that it had abandoned free speech were unfounded and pointing to a century of defending views it opposes. [4]
The clearest recent test came in 2024, when the ACLU represented the National Rifle Association at the Supreme Court in NRA v. Vullo. Its legal director, David Cole, argued that a New York regulator had violated the First Amendment by pressuring banks and insurers to cut ties with the gun group over its politics. The ACLU said it disagrees with the NRA on almost everything but defends its right to speak, and in May 2024 the Court agreed unanimously. Some of the ACLU's own state affiliates had objected to taking the case. [16] [17]
On campaign-finance law, the ACLU has also broken with most of the left. It defends the right of corporations and unions, including nonprofits like Planned Parenthood and the NRA, to spend independently on political speech, which was the core of the 2010 Citizens United ruling. It opposes any constitutional amendment to overturn that decision, a stance long contested within the organization. At the same time it says it supports public financing of campaigns, disclosure rules, reasonable limits on contributions to candidates, and stricter enforcement against super PACs coordinating with campaigns. [18]
How the ACLU Is Actually Built
Most people say "the ACLU" as if it were one thing. It is at least three. The ACLU Foundation is a 501(c)(3), a tax-exempt charity whose donations are tax-deductible; it handles most litigation and public education. Much of that legal muscle is donated: the Foundation reported about $39.5 million in pro bono legal services from outside firms in its 2024 fiscal year. [5] The ACLU proper is a 501(c)(4), a "social welfare" nonprofit whose donations are not tax-deductible; it does the lobbying, ballot-measure, and voter mobilization work that charities are limited from doing. The two share a board and management and file separate tax returns. [5]
A third entity, the ACLU Voter Education Fund, is a 527: a political organization built to raise and spend money on elections. The ACLU describes it as nonpartisan and as an independent-expenditure committee, which means it spends on races without coordinating with candidates. [6] It is recent, launched in March 2024 and registered with the Federal Election Commission, not an old committee operating under a new name. [26] On top of all this sit more than 50 state affiliates, one in every state plus Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. Each affiliate is its own separate organization with its own finances, so their numbers are not part of the national totals below.
Where the Political Money Goes
The clearest political signal is the money the ACLU spends to shape elections and laws. In 2024 the national ACLU reported about $1.85 million in federal lobbying, meaning money spent trying to influence Congress and federal agencies, filed by calendar year under the federal Lobbying Disclosure Act. [7] Its filings show a wide lobbying front: pushing for the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, the Equality Act, and the Women's Health Protection Act, while opposing expanded government surveillance under Section 702 and, on free-speech grounds, the Kids Online Safety Act and the Antisemitism Awareness Act. [19]
Its electoral arm is larger and newer. The ACLU Voter Education Fund, the 527 committee, raised about $6.9 million in the 2023 to 2024 election cycle. [8] The tracking group OpenSecrets also attributes about $936,000 in the 2024 cycle to people and committees tied to the ACLU giving to federal candidates and parties; that figure folds in individual donations from people who list the ACLU as their employer, so it is not the same as the organization writing checks. [7]
The bigger story is the voter programs the ACLU announces on its own. In 2018 it launched its first major electoral program, about $25 million, and executive director Anthony Romero said the goal was to be a liberal counterweight to the National Rifle Association. Its national political director at the time called the NRA's brand-building "a model worthy of emulation." [9]
That same year the ACLU broke with one of its own rules. Its national board suspended a standing policy against opposing nominees and came out against Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination, then spent a seven-figure sum, roughly $1 million, on TV ads pressing senators in a handful of states to vote no. It was only the fourth time in its history the group had opposed a nominee, and some former ACLU officials publicly called the campaign a partisan betrayal of its principles. [22] [23] The ACLU ran a similar $25 million program in 2024. For 2026 it announced its largest-ever down-ballot investment: a $25.5 million voter-education program across nine states, plus a separate $24.5 million election-safeguarding effort, together roughly $50 million. [10] [24] [25]
What those dollars support points in a consistent direction. For 2026 the ACLU said the money would back abortion-rights ballot measures, fund voter education in state Supreme Court and secretary-of-state races in states including Arizona and Nevada, weigh in on closely contested state legislative races, and defend LGBTQ and transgender rights. [10] Most of this money goes to state races and ballot measures rather than federal candidates: the ACLU's federally reported outside spending was only about $1.1 million in the 2024 cycle. [7] The ACLU stresses that it endorses no political party and calls the work nonpartisan and issue-based. [6]
That electoral work leans clearly to the left, but the ACLU's litigation does not always follow party lines. It repeatedly sued the Biden administration over immigration and asylum, including a 2023 challenge filed within minutes of a new Biden asylum rule taking effect, which the ACLU said revived Trump-era restrictions. [20] [21]
The Trump Bump
Money has followed politics for the ACLU. The ACLU's fortunes have long risen and fallen with the political climate, but the response to Donald Trump's 2016 election was on another scale. The Associated Press reported that the ACLU took in about $79 million in online donations in the months after the election, including a record $24 million over the two days after Trump's January 2017 travel ban on people from several majority-Muslim countries. [11]
Membership more than doubled to about 1.2 million, and the group's budget, then around $220 million, jumped. [11] By 2021 its combined revenue had roughly tripled from pre-2016 levels, according to later reporting. [12] That surge paid for the expansion into elections and grassroots organizing described above. By its 2024 fiscal year, the ACLU Foundation, the charitable arm, held about $680 million in net assets, including an investment portfolio of about $666 million. [5]
What It Says It Stands For
The ACLU is unusually open about its positions, so there is little guesswork. In its own materials it foregrounds abortion access, transgender rights, immigrants' rights, and voting rights as core priorities, and for its 2026 election work it named abortion and voting rights as the issues it believes will move voters. [10] The group frames all of this as defending constitutional rights rather than backing a party. [6]
Founding, Leadership, and Recent News
The ACLU was founded in 1920 by a group that included Roger Baldwin and Crystal Eastman. Anthony Romero has been executive director since 2001, taking the job seven days before the September 11 attacks, and is the longest-serving leader since Baldwin. [13] The rapid expansion into electoral politics was his project, and it has not been smooth: a 2022 HuffPost investigation reported staff turnover and internal conflict inside the new political department. [14]
As of early 2026, Romero described a heavy litigation docket against the second Trump administration, including a Supreme Court fight over birthright citizenship along with immigration, free speech, and voting rights cases. [15]
Where to Find Them
The national organization is online at aclu.org, which links to each state affiliate. The ACLU is a nonprofit membership organization, not a company that sells products; supporters give through membership and donations, choosing the tax-deductible Foundation or the more politically flexible 501(c)(4) depending on the kind of gift they want to make. [5]
Footnotes
[1] CBS News, "Why the ACLU defends white nationalists' free speech," 2017. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/why-the-aclu-defends-white-nationalist-free-speech-60-minutes/
[2] Reuters, "U.S. rights group rethinks defending hate groups protesting with guns," August 2017. https://news.yahoo.com/u-rights-group-rethinks-defending-hate-groups-protesting-013747752.html
[3] Michael Powell, New York Times, "Once a Bastion of Free Speech, the A.C.L.U. Faces an Identity Crisis," June 6, 2021. https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/once-a-bastion-of-free-speech-the-aclu-faces-an-identity-crisis/
[4] ACLU, "Defending Speech We Hate," 2024. https://www.aclu.org/news/civil-liberties/defending-speech-we-hate
[5] American Civil Liberties Union Foundation, Inc. and Subsidiaries, Consolidated Financial Statements, fiscal year ended March 31, 2024, accessed August 27, 2026. https://assets.aclu.org/live/uploads/2024/12/ACLUF-Consolidated-Subsidiaries-FS-03.31.24.pdf
[6] ACLU, "ACLU Launches Largest Ever Midterm Electoral Program," accessed August 27, 2026. https://www.aclu.org/news/voting-rights/aclu-launches-largest-ever-midterm-electoral-program
[7] OpenSecrets, "American Civil Liberties Union Profile: Summary," accessed August 27, 2026. https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/american-civil-liberties-union/summary?id=D000031473
[8] OpenSecrets, "PAC Profile: ACLU Voter Education Fund," accessed August 27, 2026. https://www.opensecrets.org/political-action-committees-pacs/aclu-voter-education-fund/C00872655/summary/2024
[9] CBS News, "ACLU national director calls NRA tactics 'model worthy of emulation'," May 2018. https://cbsnews.com/news/aclu-faiz-shakir-national-rifle-association-worthy-of-emulation-cbsn-interview-today-2018-05-03
[10] The Hill, "ACLU invests $25 million for voter education on key state races," 2026. https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/5957396-aclu-voter-education-spending/
[11] Associated Press, "ACLU Seeing Trump-Era Surge in Members and Donations," February 2017. https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/baltimore/news/aclu-seeing-trump-era-surge-in-members-and-donations
[12] First Things, "What Happened to the ACLU," 2025. https://firstthings.com/what-happened-to-the-aclu/
[13] ACLU, "Anthony D. Romero," accessed August 27, 2026. https://www.aclu.org/bios/anthony-d-romero
[14] HuffPost, "From Movement to Mayhem: Inside the ACLU's Post-Trump Reckoning," June 2022. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/aclu-trump-presidency-turmoil_n_62aa0e54e4b06169ca93c6a2
[15] Stanford Law School, "Inside the ACLU's Docket: Anthony Romero on the Front Lines of Civil Rights," February 19, 2026. https://law.stanford.edu/stanford-legal/inside-the-aclus-docket-anthony-romero-on-the-front-lines-of-civil-rights/
[16] American Civil Liberties Union, "Supreme Court Unanimously Rules in Favor of NRA in Free Speech Case, Upholds First Amendment Rights of All Advocacy Groups," May 30, 2024, accessed August 29, 2026. https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/supreme-court-unanimously-rules-in-favor-of-nra-in-free-speech-case-upholds-first-amendment-rights-of-all-advocacy-groups
[17] First Amendment Watch, "ACLU's David Cole on the Decision to Represent the NRA Before the Supreme Court," 2024, accessed August 29, 2026. https://firstamendmentwatch.org/newsmaker-interviews/aclus-david-cole-on-the-decision-to-represent-the-nra-before-the-supreme-court/
[18] American Civil Liberties Union, "The ACLU and Citizens United," accessed August 29, 2026. https://www.aclu.org/documents/aclu-and-citizens-united
[19] U.S. Lobbying Disclosure Act database (LDA.gov), American Civil Liberties Union (registrant and client), LD-2 report for the fourth quarter of 2024, accessed August 29, 2026. https://lda.gov/filings/public/filing/10d43023-5923-4bec-b486-5b04e84690bf/print/
[20] American Civil Liberties Union, "Immigrants' Rights Advocates Sue Biden Administration Over New Asylum Ban," July 12, 2023, accessed August 29, 2026. https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/immigrants-rights-advocates-sue-biden-administration-over-new-asylum-ban
[21] The Hill, "ACLU sues to block new asylum restrictions," May 12, 2023, accessed August 29, 2026. https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/4001833-aclu-sues-to-block-new-asylum-restrictions/
[22] American Civil Liberties Union, "ACLU Makes Seven-Figure TV Ad Buy Opposing Nomination of Brett Kavanaugh," September 2018, accessed August 29, 2026. https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/aclu-makes-seven-figure-tv-ad-buy-opposing-nomination-brett-kavanaugh
[23] Washington Examiner, "Former ACLU Leaders Blast 'Appalling' Anti-Brett Kavanaugh Ad Campaign," October 2018, accessed August 29, 2026. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/2615708/former-aclu-leaders-blast-appalling-anti-brett-kavanaugh-ad-campaign/
[24] American Civil Liberties Union, "ACLU Launches Historic 'Firewall for Freedom' Campaign to Protect Crucial Rights Up and Down the Ballot," July 7, 2026, accessed August 29, 2026. https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/aclu-launches-campaign-to-protect-rights-up-and-down-ballot
[25] American Civil Liberties Union, "ACLU Launches Historic Election Safeguarding Effort Ahead of the Midterms," June 23, 2026, accessed August 29, 2026. https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/aclu-launches-historic-election-safeguarding-effort-ahead-of-the-midterms
[26] American Civil Liberties Union, "The ACLU Voter Education Fund," accessed August 29, 2026. https://www.aclu.org/campaigns-initiatives/the-aclu-voter-education-fund
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