Happy ACLU Day!

WASHINGTON — The American Civil Liberties Union last night honored Bruce Springsteen and Colin Kaepernick with the Ralph Ellison Award for Defenders of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties in the Arts, Business, Science, and Sports. This new award pays tribute to Ralph Ellison’s profound contributions to American thought and culture and underscores the ACLU’s recognition that the defense of our rights takes many forms, disciplines, platforms, and generations. The awards were bestowed alongside other esteemed leaders in civil rights, academia, and free speech, who were selected for the organization’s prestigious biennial awards recognizing lifetime achievements and contributions to civil rights and civil liberties. The award ceremony, held in Washington, D.C., was hosted by Laverne Cox, an actress, New York Times best-selling author and advocate for transgender rights. “Bruce Springsteen and Colin Kaepernick are the leaders our country so desperately needs in this moment. They are not only great talent, but use their platforms to educate and advocate because they recognize that the work on the stage and on the field is inseparable from the fight for liberty and justice,” said Anthony D. Romero, ACLU executive director. Bruce Springsteen is a singer, songwriter, and musician who has won 20 Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, two Golden Globes, and a Special Tony Award. In a rare move, earlier this year Springsteen authorized the ACLU's use of “Born in the U.S.A.” for an ad campaign highlighting what was at stake in the Supreme Court case involving birthright citizenship, Trump v. Barbara. “If I can, I will accept this award tonight for the folks who really deserve it. It's the citizens from all walks of life in Minnesota, Portland, Los Angeles, Newark — and our other under siege cities who this year put their beliefs and their lives on the line in defense of the rights of their neighbors and in service of our American ideals,” said Springsteen, who performed “Streets of Minneapolis” after accepting the award. Colin Kaepernick is a former NFL player who in 2016 ignited a global movement against racial injustice and police brutality, sacrificing his professional career to defend civil rights. Beyond his protest, he founded the Know Your Rights Camp, an initiative that empowers youth through legal education and self-advocacy. “When we look back at this moment, and the next generation is talking about the work that we did, let's make sure they don't say we recognized injustice. Let them say we refused to normalize it. Let them not say that we admired courage, let them say that we actively practiced it. Let them not say that we inherited history, let them say we changed the direction of it,” said Kaepernick. “Tonight we recognize remarkable leaders whose courage and commitment have strengthened this movement. The honorees have inspired us and sustained us — often at great personal risk — and always with great love for their neighbors and their nation,” said Deborah N. Archer, ACLU board president. In addition to Springsteen and Kaepernick, other honorees included: Vanita Gupta, former U.S. associate attorney general and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. Gupta was awarded the ACLU Roger N. Baldwin Medal of Liberty. “As someone whose deepest professional values were shaped and informed at the ACLU, I truly cannot tell you how honored I am to receive the Baldwin medal,” said Gupta. “Roger Baldwin recognized the need for constant ongoing vigilance in protecting constitutional rights, saying that no civil liberties battle ever remains won. That idea built this organization, and today that idea — and this organization — are as important as they have ever been.” Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the University of California at Berkeley Law School and preeminent voice in constitutional law. Chemerinsky’s influential scholarship and Supreme Court advocacy continue to shape the national discourse on federal jurisdiction, the First Amendment, and the protection of civil liberties. Chemerinsky was awarded the ACLU Presidential Prize. “Receiving the award at this moment in American history is especially significant. Years from now — decades from now — people will look back at us and judge us, as we look back at times like the McCarthy era or other pivotal moments and judge what people did,” said Chemerinsky. “Will we be condemned for our silence and our capitulation? Or will we be praised for our courage and our resistance?” Elizabeth Foster, who gained national recognition for defending the freedom to read in South Carolina. She mobilizes students to protect interconnected liberties ranging from free speech to LGBTQ rights. Foster was named the ACLU Next Generation Leader in Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. “I'm humbled to be recognized by an organization that means so much to me. Looking out at all of you tonight, I see so many powerful advocates, organizers, lawyers, educators, musicians, and athletes — all with immense influence and impact. But the most powerful people I see in this room tonight are the students,” said Foster. “Wherever you are and whoever you have around you, there's a community of potential advocates surrounding you ready to come out of the woodwork as soon as you speak up.” The ACLU recognizes leaders in civil rights and civil liberties biennially. The ACLU Roger N. Baldwin Medal of Liberty is the ACLU’s highest honor acknowledging individuals who have made lifetime contributions to the advancement of civil liberties. First awarded in 1989 and named after the ACLU founder, the medal comes with a cash award of $30,000. The ACLU Presidential Prize is granted to a full-time academic in any discipline to honor outstanding, lifetime contributions to civil rights and liberties in academia. The prize was first awarded in 2013. Photos and videos from the awards ceremony are available here: https://dam.aclu.org/Share/am65kc3bg62oi6xbd63u23xy5b2xhh3r

BOSTON – Today, legal organizations across the ideological spectrum urged the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit to uphold a district court’s order blocking the Trump administration’s attempted hostile ideological takeover of Harvard University. The federal government decided to withhold billions of dollars in research funding from Harvard University after the university refused to vet its students, faculty, and course offerings for “ideological diversity” and place certain departments and centers at odds with the government’s preferred viewpoint – such as the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures – under a third party audit. On June 9, 2025, the ACLU and numerous other organizations filed an amicus brief in support of Harvard’s motion for summary judgement. On September 3, 2025, the federal court in the District of Massachusetts blocked the government’s attacks on Harvard. The judge noted that the Trump administration tried to “force Harvard to better manifest the government’s favored worldview,” in direct violation of the university’s right to free speech. Today, the following organizations, together filed an amicus brief asking the appellate court to affirm the lower court’s ruling that the administration's actions are unconstitutional: ACLU ACLU of Massachusetts ACLU of Maine ACLU of New Hampshire ACLU of Puerto Rico ACLU of Rhode Island Cato Institute Electronic Frontier Foundation Knight First Amendment Institute National Coalition Against Censorship Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press Rutherford Institute The brief’s key arguments: “The administration’s conduct is unconstitutional any way you slice it: It represents an effort by this administration to impose ‘its own conception of speech nirvana’ on a private institution . . . ; it improperly seeks to leverage federal research funds in a viewpoint-based way, to control speech outside of the scope of the program, and to control the work of a private university—each of which is unconstitutional in its own right.” The government sought to unconstitutionally coerce Harvard to hire faculty, admit students, and make research choices that aligned with the government’s preferred ideological tilt, a viewpoint-based condition for funding that is unconstitutional. “The First Amendment principle of academic freedom prohibits the government from imposing ideological admissions, hiring, and programmatic requirements on colleges and universities.” The First Amendment retaliation and coercion in this case is all the more egregious because it targets an institution of higher education, whose choices about who to teach, what to teach, and who should do the teaching are all protected by the First Amendment. “The government’s abuse of its funding power here is meant as a message to all of us: get in ideological line or the government will go after you,” said Vera Eidelman, senior staff attorney with the ACLU. “This ideological bullying is an abuse of the executive’s power, and the appellate court should affirm that it violates the First Amendment, or the floodgates of retaliation and coercion will open to us all.” "The Trump administration's attempt to bully Harvard into submission is a brazen attack on free expression and academic freedom, which are essential pillars of our democracy," said Jessie Rossman, legal director at the ACLU of Massachusetts. "Universities are places of free inquiry, where scholars expand their horizons, advance science and knowledge, and enrich our culture. Academic institutions are part of the bedrock of Massachusetts, and residents of the Commonwealth understand that we all lose if such attacks go unchallenged. Now more than ever, it is critical that institutions exercise the courage to fight back. ACLUM is proud to stand alongside co-amici in defense of the First Amendment." “The government is attempting to unlawfully suppress academic freedom, one of our nation’s deepest commitments,” said ACLU of Maine Legal Director Carol Garvan. “It is fundamental to free speech, free thought, and societal advancement that teachers and students remain free to ask questions, debate, study, and present their views. And the government’s interference won’t stop at Harvard. The administration’s unlawful conduct here could open the floodgates to retaliation and ideological bullying of private actors across the country. We hope the First Circuit will uphold the district court’s decision.” “The ACLU of Rhode Island is proud to stand with the organizations from across the public, cultural and political spectrum who are all aligned in their opposition to the federal government’s effort to leverage federal grants to coerce and intimidate private colleges and universities to abandon that most fundamental space for free thought and expression that higher education represents and instead step in line with the administration’s ideological viewpoints,” said Lynette Labinger, Cooperating Attorney for the ACLU of Rhode Island. “As we say in our brief, ‘Allowing the administration’s unlawful conduct here could open the floodgates to retaliation, coercion, and ideological bullying of private actors across sectors.’” “Private educational institutions need to be free to select and pursue their missions, and the First Amendment does not permit the government to force them to replace that chosen mission with someone else's notion of ideological balance,” said Walter Olson, senior fellow at Cato's Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies. “The courts have made clear that the government may not use funding leverage to coerce recipients into surrendering constitutional rights of expression. Beyond that, any federal move to define and dictate what is ideological balance in the faculty makeup of a department or among the students in a classroom would give Washington improper power to decide what viewpoints are or aren't important enough to merit representation as well as discretion to retaliate against faculty, programs and students it dislikes for ideological reasons. That this administration demanded that Harvard target its divinity school for an ideological overhaul — its divinity school! — should make clear the First Amendment dangers here.” “The Trump administration’s attacks on universities are attacks on democracy itself,” said Alex Abdo, litigation director of the Knight First Amendment Institute. “Universities are the stewards of society’s search for basic knowledge, and the government should not be dictating what courses may be taught, what ideas may be explored, and which students may be admitted to learn.” “Universities are the epicenter for the free exchange of ideas, the foundation for our First Amendment protections and democracy itself,” said Erika Sanders, counsel at the National Coalition Against Censorship. “This administration’s attempt to force its own views upon Harvard is antithetical to the purpose of education and flies in the face of the principles of free expression.” “These actions represent a dangerous incursion by the government into First Amendment-protected speech,” said Gabe Rottman, vice president of policy at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. “If successful, they could lay the groundwork for federal interference in speech beyond just universities, including the targeting of news organizations and journalists for perceived ideological 'bias.'" “By weaponizing the federal government to silence dissent and force conformity, the Trump administration is waging war against the Constitution, the rule of law, and anyone who dares to think independently,” said John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute. “If the government can dictate what is taught in a private university’s classroom, it won’t stop there—it will seek to dictate what is said in the pulpit, printed in the press, and spoken in the streets. This kind of ideological coercion is the hallmark of authoritarian regimes and precisely the kind of tyranny the First Amendment was intended to prevent.”

WASHINGTON — The American Civil Liberties Union announced today that Bruce Springsteen and Colin Kaepernick have been selected for a new award recognizing profound contributions to American thought and culture: the ACLU Ralph Ellison Award for Defenders of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties in the Arts, Business, Science, and Sports. This new award pays tribute to Ralph Ellison’s profound contributions to American thought and culture and underscores the ACLU’s recognition that the defense of our rights takes many forms, disciplines, platforms, and generations. The awards are being bestowed alongside other esteemed leaders in civil rights, academia, and free speech, who have been selected for the organization’s prestigious biennial awards recognizing lifetime achievements and contributions to civil rights and civil liberties. “Bruce Springsteen and Colin Kaepernick epitomize talent with a purpose. Bruce Springsteen’s iconic songs like ‘Born in the U.S.A.’ date back decades, and so does his advocacy on behalf of civil rights and liberties. Colin Kaepernick’s activism off the field has changed lives for a decade, long after the backlash he received for speaking out against racial injustice,” said Anthony D. Romero, ACLU executive director. “We are proud of the partnerships the ACLU has formed with Bruce and Colin, and we’re honored to recognize their lifetime achievements with one of the ACLU’s highest honors.” Bruce Springsteen is a singer, songwriter, and musician who has won 20 Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, two Golden Globes, and a Special Tony Award. In a rare move, earlier this year Springsteen authorized the ACLU's use of “Born in the U.S.A.” for an ad campaign highlighting what’s at stake in the Supreme Court case involving birthright citizenship, Trump v. Barbara. Colin Kaepernick is a former NFL player who in 2016 ignited a global movement against racial injustice and police brutality, sacrificing his professional career to defend civil rights. Beyond his protest, he founded the Know Your Rights Camp, an initiative that empowers youth through legal education and self-advocacy. The ACLU recognizes leaders in civil rights and civil liberties biennially. The awards include the ACLU Roger N. Baldwin Medal of Liberty; the ACLU Presidential Prize, and the new ACLU Ralph Ellison Award for Defenders of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties in the Arts, Business, Science, and Sports. In addition to Springsteen and Kaepernick, other honorees include: Vanita Gupta, former U.S. associate attorney general and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. Gupta is a transformative force in civil rights, recently uniting the NGO community against unprecedented attacks while launching the NYU Center for Law and Public Trust to reimagine democratic institutions. Gupta will be awarded the ACLU Roger N. Baldwin Medal of Liberty. Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the University of California at Berkeley Law School and preeminent voice in constitutional law. Chemerinsky’s influential scholarship and Supreme Court advocacy continue to shape the national discourse on federal jurisdiction, the First Amendment, and the protection of civil liberties. Chemerinsky will be awarded the ACLU Presidential Prize. Elizabeth Foster, who gained national recognition for defending the freedom to read in South Carolina. By restoring banned books and framing censorship as a vital racial justice issue, she mobilizes students to protect interconnected liberties ranging from free speech to LGBTQ rights. Foster will be named the ACLU Next Generation Leader in Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. “Whether it’s teaching the next generation of civil rights lawyers, defending our freedoms at the Department of Justice, or mobilizing against censorship, there are few leaders in this country like Vanita Gupta, Erwin Chemerinsky, and Elizabeth Foster. Their contributions to civil rights and liberties are eminently deserving of the ACLU’s highest honors,” said Romero. The ACLU Roger N. Baldwin Medal of Liberty is the ACLU’s highest honor acknowledging individuals who have made lifetime contributions to the advancement of civil liberties. First awarded in 1989 and named after the ACLU founder, the medal comes with a cash award of $30,000. The ACLU Presidential Prize is granted to a full-time academic in any discipline to honor outstanding, lifetime contributions to civil rights and liberties in academia. The prize was first awarded in 2013. The awards will be bestowed on Friday, July 24 in Washington, D.C. The awards ceremony will be hosted by Laverne Cox, an actress, New York Times best-selling author and advocate for transgender rights.

The ACLU, the ACLU of Florida, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and their partners represent CAIR and CAIR-Florida in two federal lawsuits challenging Governor DeSantis’s unconstitutional and baseless designation of the nonprofits as “terrorist.” The lawsuits allege violations of CAIR and CAIR-Florida’s rights under the First Amendment and the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.