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> Blog: A Christmas Carol from the ACLU

ACLU Cases Defending Religious Freedom The ACLU and Freedom of Religion and Belief CASES > Case: Moreno v. Ector County School Board > Victory: The Challenge to Intelligent Design > Litigation: The Mt. Soledad Cross LEARN MORE > Christmas and the ACLU > USA Today: A Fictional 'War on Christmas' > How the ACLU Didn't Steal Christmas AUDIO FROM THE 2006 MEMBERSHIP CONFERENCE > Program Director Jeremy Gunn > ACLU Legal Director Steve Shapiro > ACLU of Pennsylvania Attorney Vic Walczak

The right of each and every American to practice his or her own religion (or no religion at all), is among the most fundamental of the freedoms guaranteed by the Bill of Rights. The American Civil Liberties Union’s long history of working to ensure that religious liberty is protected goes as far back as the Scopes trial of 1925. Long before other groups appeared on the scene to argue for religious freedom, the ACLU was arguing on behalf of the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ right not to be compelled against their beliefs to recite the Pledge of Allegiance (as an amicus in the famous West Virginia v. Barnette case of 1943). The ACLU has been involved in a long series of prominent cases – under both the Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause – that have argued against government interference in the religious sphere, including, e.g., Engel v. Vitale (1962), Abington v. Schempp (1963), Epperson v. Arkansas (1968), Edwards v. Aguillard (1987), Allegheny County v. ACLU (1989), Employment Division v. Smith (1990), Santa Fe Independent School District v. Doe (2000), and ACLU of Kentucky v. McCreary (2005). More recently the ACLU of Pennsylvania, with Americans United, successfully challenged the Dover, Pennsylvania, attempt to promote so-called “intelligent design” in public schools.

The ACLU launched its new Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief in 2005 to coordinate the broad range of issues coming under the rubric of religion. The Program now has five staff members, including three experienced attorneys, who work to promote and safeguard constitutionally protected freedoms of religion and belief through First Amendment litigation, public education, and community outreach.
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ACLU Sues To Protect Marriages Threatened By Recent Court Decision (02/14/2008)
PHILADELPHIA – The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania filed the first three lawsuits today in a planned statewide challenge of a recent judicial declaration stating that marriages are invalid if presided over by a minister who does not regularly serve a church or preach in a physical house of worship. The ruling potentially endangers thousands of marriages in Pennsylvania.

ACLU to Florida Board of Education: Don’t Allow Religious Groups to Force Their Beliefs Into Science Classes (12/18/2007)
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida sent a letter to the Florida Board of Education (FBOE) outlining the potential legal risks of adopting a science curriculum that includes particular religious groups’ beliefs about the origins of the universe.

American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota inquiry into Normandale Community College meditation room (12/18/2007)
St. Paul, Minn - The American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota announced today that it is inquiring into Normandale Community College’s meditation room after hearing allegations of improper use. The ACLU-MN is concerned that way the prayer room is currently structured may violate the establishment clause.

ACLU Says Religious Tests for Public Office Unconstitutional (12/06/2007)
NEW YORK – Today’s speech by presidential candidate Mitt Romney provides an excellent opportunity for all Americans to consider the appropriate role of faith in public life. While religious expression is a valued and protected part of the First Amendment rights guaranteed to all citizens, as is the right to speak about it, the Constitution also mandates that government stay out of the business of promoting religion.

ACLU Applauds Removal of Unconstitutional "Creation Science" Earmark from Appropriations Bill (10/18/2007)
WASHINGTON – The American Civil Liberties Union, alongside 33 other religious, civil rights, education, science and advocacy organizations celebrated today as Senator David Vitter (R-LA) withdrew an unconstitutional earmark that would have funded the teaching of creationism in public school science classes. The earmark was added on to the Fiscal Year 2008 Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriation Bill’s Committee Report.

Jason and Jennifer O'Neill Compalint for Declartory Judgement to Confirm the Validity of Their Marriage (02/26/2008)

February 27, 2007 ACLU of Virginia Letter to Governor Kaine (02/27/2007)
February 27, 2007 ACLU of Virginia Letter to Governor Kaine

Complaint in Stanley v West Virginia (09/19/2006)

ACLU of North Carolina Letter to AOC (07/11/2005)

Text of William Young's Letter to the Editor of the Casper Star-Tribune (5/8/02) (03/09/2005)

Coalition Letter to Senate regarding "Creation Science" Earmark (10/10/2007)
Dear Senator: We, the undersigned religious, civil rights, education, science, and advocacy organizations write to urge you to remove an earmark from the Fiscal Year 2008 Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriation Bill’s Committee Report. The Fund for Improvement of Education, under Title III, contains an earmark for uses that, if funded, would be blatantly unconstitutional. The earmark would fund curriculum that promotes teaching creationism in the science classroom, even though uniformly prohibited by federal courts.

SUPPORT BIPARTISAN REAUTHORIZATION OF HEAD START BY OPPOSING ANY ATTEMPT TO REPEAL THIRTY-FIVE YEAR OLD CIVIL RIGHTS PROVISION (04/20/2007)
We, the undersigned religious, civil rights, labor, education, health, and advocacy organizations urge you to support H.R. 1429, bipartisan legislation that would reauthorize the Head Start program, and to oppose any attempt to repeal longstanding critical civil rights protections. As reported out of the House Committee on Education and Labor on a 42-1 bipartisan vote, H.R. 1429 keeps in place a 35-year old civil rights provision that protects over 213,000 Head Start teachers and staff and over 1,360,000 parent volunteers from employment discrimination based on religion in federally-funded positions in Head Start programs.

Oppose Any Attempt to Repeal Longstanding Civil Rights Protections in Head Start (04/19/2007)
On behalf of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR), the nation’s oldest, largest, and most diverse civil and human rights coalition, with more than 190 member organizations, we urge you to support H.R. 1429, the Improving Head Start Act of 2007, and oppose any attempt on the House floor to repeal longstanding civil rights protections in the Head Start Program that have been in place since President Nixon signed the law in 1972. We strongly oppose any language that would allow federally funded employment discrimination.* If language repealing civil rights protections is added to the bill either during consideration on the House floor or in the Motion to Recommit, we urge you to oppose final passage of the bill.

Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty Letter Urging Opposition to the "Public Expression of Religion Act" (09/05/2006)

Jewish Council for Public Affairs Letter urging Opposition to the "Public Expression of Religion Act" (09/05/2006)

ACLU Statement On The Government's Actions Regarding The Yearning For Zion Ranch In Eldorado, Texas (05/02/2008)

Christmas and the ACLU (12/13/2007)

Letter from Jeremy Gunn to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (07/24/2007)

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights held a hearing on June 1, 2007, entitled "The Blaine Amendments and Anti-Catholicism." The ACLU sent a letter to the Commission arguing that although opponents of the so-called "Blaine amendments" (state laws prohibiting government funding of religious education) misleadingly raise the specter of anti-Catholic bias as a reason for repeal, opponents are not able to cite any examples during the last one hundred years where laws have in fact relied on Blaine amendments to justify anti-Catholic bias. Thus "anti-Catholic bias" is a pretext to disguise the real reason opponents want to repeal the Blaine amendments. They want to use taxpayer dollars to pay for religious activities. The Commission's statutory mandate is to focus on discrimination, not to seek pretexts to promote taxpayer funding of religious education.

The ACLU and Freedom of Religion and Belief (11/03/2006)

"Public Expression of Religion Act" Threatens Religious Freedom (09/27/2006)
Background, news and resources about the Public Expression of Religion Act.

Hein v. Freedom From Religion Foundation (02/02/2007)
Reviewing a challenge to a Supreme Court ruling that, for forty years, has allowed taxpayers to seek a federal court injunction against government expenditures in violation of the Establishment Clause. DECIDED