Outlet profile

American Civil Liberties Union

U.S. progressive/left-leaning civil liberties advocacy group

Owned byNot owned by a company or individual. It is a membership-based nonprofit made up of two national entities: the American Civil Liberties Union, Inc. (a 501(c)(4) lobbying and advocacy group) and the ACLU Foundation (a 501(c)(3) that runs litigation and public education). It has 54 state and territorial affiliates, each with a similar two-entity structure. An executive director and a board of directors run it. Anthony D. Romero has been executive director since 2001.

FundingMostly individual donations and membership dues, plus foundation grants, bequests and court-awarded attorney's fees. Gifts to the Foundation are tax-deductible, and gifts to the ACLU Inc. are not. Reports describe a budget of roughly $550 million in contributions and about 2,100 employees. Donations surged after Trump's 2016 election, and one report says the surge after his 2024 win was only about half as fast.

On the administrationbroadly critical

Background

The ACLU was founded in 1920 by activists including Roger Baldwin, Crystal Eastman and Helen Keller, growing out of earlier work defending conscientious objectors and dissenters during World War I. It became known for cases such as the 1925 Scopes trial, challenges to censorship, and later work on civil rights, reproductive rights, and religious freedom. It has long defended speech for unpopular groups, including a 1977 case on behalf of neo-Nazis seeking to march in Skokie, Illinois. That tradition draws internal and external criticism, including a 2018 debate over how to weigh speech cases against other values. Its dual structure separates tax-deductible litigation and education work (Foundation) from lobbying and electoral-adjacent advocacy (ACLU Inc.). During Trump's first term it quadrupled its membership and gained about $120 million in donations. In his second term it has described dozens of lawsuits and, by its own count, nearly 400 or more legal actions against the administration, claiming a high success rate (about 65 percent in its own tally, which is self-reported). Critics on the right call it partisan, while some critics on the left say it has been too cautious or too tied to institutional politics. Its own campaign materials and press releases are advocacy, so they present its record favorably.

Sources

Profile compiled 2026-11-02; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

← Back to track record