About Us

We are the local presence of the ACLU, a national non-partisan organization devoted to defending and advancing individual liberty under the Bill of Rights. You have rights of free speech, religion, press and assembly, due process if you're accused of a crime, privacy and equal protection that cannot be violated by the government nor voted away by the people. You can learn about your rights so you can assert them yourself or you can ask us for help.

We offer handbooks in question and answer form on civil liberties issues, on students rights, and (coming this fall) on job rights. You can read about the handbooks and how to obtain them right on this web site.

How do these rights on paper get translated into real life? Here are some of the people we've helped, both in and out of court:

a student editor denied press freedom
a fire fighter suspended for publishing a letter critical of department operations
jail inmates denied privileges when only one misbehaved
a store owner fined for selling cigarettes to a minor without being allowed to face his accuser
a homeowner whose political lawn sign was confiscated by the police
a young man arrested for Walking While Black in a white neighborhood.
And we challenge whole systems when they violate the rights of thousands, not just individuals. Several years ago we sued Nassau County because its Board of Supervisors violated the one-person, one-vote principle. Now we have a county legislature with equally balanced districts. Our latest lawsuit persuaded Nassau County to agree to reform its tax assessment system that we claimed was racially discriminatory. The new system will be in place by January 1, 2003.

If you have a First Amendment claim - speech, religion, press or assembly - or if are a victim of an unfair law or rule of a public agency, such as the schools, police, the jail, civil service or local government, help yourself by calling or e-mailing us.

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