The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is an American nonprofit human rights organization founded in 1920. The organization strives "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." The ACLU works through litigation and lobbying and has more than 1,800,000 members as of July 2018,with an annual budget over $300 million. ACLU affiliates are active in all 50 states,Washington,D.C.,and Puerto Rico. The ACLU provides legal assistance in cases where it considers civil liberties at risk. Legal support from the ACLU can take the form of direct legal representation or preparation of amicus curiae briefs expressing legal arguments when another law firm is already providing representation.
The National Rifle Association of America (NRA) is a gun rights advocacy group based in the United States. Founded in 1871 to advance rifle marksmanship,the modern NRA has become a prominent gun rights lobbying organization while continuing to teach firearm safety and competency. The organization also publishes several magazines and sponsors competitive marksmanship events. According to the NRA,it had nearly 5 million members as of December 2018,though that figure has not been independently confirmed.
Robert Laurence Barr Jr. is an American attorney and politician. He served as a federal prosecutor and as a U.S. Representative. He represented Georgia's 7th congressional district as a Republican from 1995 to 2003. Barr attained national prominence as one of the leaders of the impeachment of President Bill Clinton. During his time in the House of Representatives,he authored the Defense of Marriage Act,which was later overturned by the Supreme Court in 2013 and repealed by the 117th Congress.
Russell Dana Feingold is an American politician and lawyer who served as a United States Senator from Wisconsin from 1993 to 2011. A member of the Democratic Party,he was its nominee in the 2016 election for the same U.S. Senate seat he had previously occupied. From 1983 to 1993,he was a Wisconsin State Senator representing the 27th District.
Michael Dean Crapo is an American lawyer and politician serving as the senior United States senator from Idaho,a seat he has held since 1999. A member of the Republican Party,Crapo served as the U.S. representative for Idaho's 2nd congressional district from 1993 to 1999. He is the dean of Idaho's congressional delegation,having served since 1993.
American Civil Liberties Union v. Ashcroft is a lawsuit filed on behalf of a formerly unknown Internet Service Provider (ISP) company under the pseudonym John Doe,Inc. by the American Civil Liberties Union against the U.S. federal government,by the Department of Justice under former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft.
John Alfred Sullivan is an American politician who was the U.S. representative for Oklahoma's 1st congressional district from 2002 to 2013. He is a member of the Republican Party.
Anthony D. Romero is an American lawyer who serves as the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union. He assumed the position in 2001 as the first Latino and openly gay man to do so.
David D. Cole is the National Legal Director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Before joining the ACLU in July 2016,Cole was the Hon. George J. Mitchell Professor in Law and Public Policy at the Georgetown University Law Center from March 2014 through December 2016. He has published in various legal fields including constitutional law,national security,criminal justice,civil rights,and law and literature. Cole has litigated several significant First Amendment cases in the Supreme Court of the United States,as well a number of influential cases concerning civil rights and national security. He is also a legal correspondent to several mainstream media outlets and publications.
The Constitution Project is a non-profit think tank in the United States whose goal is to build bipartisan consensus on significant constitutional and legal questions. Its founder and president is Virginia Sloan. The Constitution Project’s work is divided between two programs:the Rule of Law Program and the Criminal Justice Program. Each program houses bipartisan committees focused on specific constitutional issues.
Bruce Fein is an American lawyer who specializes in constitutional and international law. Fein has written numerous articles on constitutional issues for The Washington Times,Slate.com,The New York Times,The Huffington Post and Legal Times,and is active on civil liberties issues. He has worked for the American Enterprise Institute and The Heritage Foundation,both conservative think tanks,as an analyst and commentator.
Robert Edward Latta is an American politician who is the United States representative for Ohio's 5th congressional district,serving since 2007. He is a member of the Republican Party. The district includes many of Toledo's suburbs,as well as Findlay,Bowling Green,Napoleon,Sylvania,Defiance and Van Wert. It also includes a sliver of Toledo itself.
The history of the USA PATRIOT Act involved many parties who opposed and supported the Patriot Act,which was proposed,enacted and signed into law 45 days after the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001. The legislation,though approved by large majorities in the U.S. Senate and House of Representative,was controversial,and parts of the law were invalidated or modified by successful legal challenges over constitutional infringements to civil liberties. The Act had several sunset provisions,most reauthorized by the USA PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2005 and the USA PATRIOT Act Additional Reauthorizing Amendments Act. Both reauthorizations incorporated amendments to the original USA PATRIOT Act,and other federal laws.
The 2008 presidential campaign of Bob Barr,former Congressman of Georgia began on May 12,2008. He announced his candidacy for the Libertarian Party's president after months of grassroots draft efforts. Barr was criticized by Libertarians who opposed his efforts in Congress,which included sponsorship of the Defense of Marriage Act and votes in favor of the USA PATRIOT Act and authorization of the War in Iraq,but he was supported by others who accepted his regret for those positions. Barr won the party's nomination after six rounds of balloting at the 2008 Libertarian Party National Convention. Former contender Wayne Allyn Root was named as his running mate. Reason magazine senior editor Radley Balko called Barr "the first serious candidate the LP has run since I've been eligible to vote."
Elizabeth Katharine "Betsy" Johnson is an American aviator,entrepreneur,and politician who served in the Oregon House of Representatives from the 1st and 31st House districts from 2001 to 2005,and in the Oregon Senate from the 16th district from 2005 to 2021,as a member of the Democratic Party. Prior to her tenure in the state legislature she served on the Port of St. Helens board and worked in the Oregon Department of Transportation.
Jameel Jaffer is a Canadian human rights and civil liberties attorney and the inaugural director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University,which was created to defend the freedoms of speech and the press in the digital age. The Institute engages in "strategic litigation,research,and public education." Among the Knight Institute's first lawsuits was a successful constitutional challenge to President Trump's practice of blocking critics from his Twitter account.
The 2016 United States Senate election in Wisconsin was held November 8,2016,to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the State of Wisconsin,concurrently with the 2016 U.S. presidential election,as well as other elections to the United States Senate in other states and elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections. The primaries were held August 9,2016.
Constitutionalism in the United States is a basic value espoused by political parties,activist groups and individuals across a wide range of the political spectrum,that the powers of federal,state and local governments are limited by the Constitution of the United States and that the civil and political rights of citizens should not be violated.
Maria Valeryevna Butina is a Russian politician,political activist,journalist,and former entrepreneur who was convicted in 2018 of acting as an unregistered foreign agent of Russia within the United States.
Faiz Shakir is an American Democratic political advisor. He serves as senior advisor to Bernie Sanders and executive director of the nonprofit media organization More Perfect Union. Previously,he was campaign manager for Bernie Sanders' 2020 presidential campaign,an aide to Congressional leaders Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid,an editor-in-chief of the ThinkProgress blog,and political director of the American Civil Liberties Union. Raised in Florida by Pakistani immigrants,Shakir is a progressive liberal and an advocate for Muslim American communities.
