ACLU at IMSA

Welcome! We are the ACLU at IMSA, the first high school chapter of the ACLU of Illinois. Opinions/views expressed are not reflective of IMSA or the ACLU and are intended to only represent our chapter. Below you will find links to our Facebook group, Instagram, our podcast, and more!

What is the ACLU?

American Civil Liberties (ACLU) Website

Founded in 1920, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) defends and preserves the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States. The ACLU is a non-partisan organization, meaning it does not affiliate with or favor any one political party.

ACLU Civil Liberties

  • Capital Punishment - The ACLU supports the repeal of the death penalty through litigation, advocacy, and training.

  • Criminal Law Reform - Works to deconstruct racial inequities and unfair treatment in America’s justice system

  • Disability Rights - Works to secure the rights to healthcare, education, voting, and jobs for disabled Americans by targeting discriminatory policies

  • Free Speech - Strives to defend the freedom of the press, hold up democratic processes, and encourage diversity of thought

  • **HIV **- Works to defend and advance the civil rights and civil liberties of people living with HIV, committed to fighting against laws that criminalize living with HIV and make healthcare accessible to individuals living with HIV

  • Human Rights - Dedicated to holding the U.S. government accountable to universal human rights principles and rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution

  • Immigrants’ Rights - Dedicated to expanding and enforcing the civil liberties and civil rights of immigrants and to combating public and private discrimination against them

  • Juvenile Justice - Committed to challenging the criminalization and incarceration of young people—particularly youth from disenfranchised communities, working to dismantle “school-to-prison” pipeline

  • Racial Justice - Works to dismantle systemic racism and working to repair centuries of harm inflicted on communities of color

  • LGBTQ Rights - Working to end discrimination, harassment and violence toward transgender people, close gaps in our federal/state civil rights laws, prevent protections against discrimination from being undermined by a license to discriminate, and to protect LGBTQ people in and from the criminal legal system

  • **National Security **- Keeps a close eye on the U.S’s national security policies and actions to make sure they uphold the Constitution and human rights.

  • Prisoners’ Rights - Ensures that all prisons treated their occupants ethically and in compliance with the Constitution

  • **Privacy & Technology **- Aims to help individuals maintain control over their data and to make sure that technological advance does not skew the definition of human rights.

  • **Religious Liberty **- Protects the 1st Amendment by making sure the U.S. upholds separation of church and state.

  • Reproductive Freedom - Fights to make sure women have a choice in their reproductive decisions

  • Smart Justice - Working in all 50 states for reforms to usher in a new era of justice in America in the criminal justice system, this includes sentencing reform, bail reform, prosecutorial reform, parole and release, and re-entry

  • **Voting Rights **- Working to solidify everyone’s right to vote by pushing back against legislation that infringes it

  • Women’s Rights - Pushing for change and systemic reform in institutions that perpetuate discrimination against women, focusing its work in the areas of employment, violence against women, and education