American Civil Liberties Foundation of Oregon Inc

How We Do It (Strategies & Tactics)

When you hear about the ACLU in the news, it is often related to our work in the courts. That work, while important, is only part of what we do. We also:

* Lobby actively at the local, state, and national levels to prevent the passage of laws that would undermine civil liberties and civil rights, and we support the passage of laws that would enhance civil rights and civil liberties.
* Review all proposed ballot initiatives filed in Oregon and monitor those that would have an impact on civil liberties and civil rights. We have helped coordinate many ballot measure campaigns.
* With the assistance of volunteer lawyers, we provide legal assistance in cases that will establish precedent on important civil liberties and civil rights principals. This most often involves the filing of ?friend of the court? briefs in cases that are already on appeal. We occasionally provide direct representation to individuals or organizations whose rights are jeopardized by government actions.
* We do educational outreach designed to sway public opinion on civil liberties and civil rights issues. We do public speaking, publish briefing papers on specific issues, work with the news media and maintain a website with updates about issues we are currently working on.