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The National ACLU
The national American Civil Liberties Union
was founded in 1920 to preserve the fundamental liberties written
in the Constitution and its Bill of Rights.
Every ACLU office builds a menu of programs
and services to meet the unique characteristics of the communities
that are served. Through communications, lobbying and litigation,
the ACLU endeavors to preserve and enhance liberties grounded
in the United States and state constitutions and civil rights
laws. Among these liberties are separation of church and state,
freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of association,
the right to privacy, reproductive rights, due process of law,
and the right to equal treatment under the law. To learn more
about the work of the national ACLU, please visit www.aclu.org.
Our Mission
The ACLU’s South Carolina office works
to preserve and guarantee the protections of the Constitution's
Bill of Rights. We aim to extend these freedoms to segments
of our population who have traditionally been denied their
rights, including people of color; lesbians, gay men, bisexuals,
and transgendered people; women; mental-health patients; prisoners;
people with disabilities; and the poor.
If the rights of society's most vulnerable
members are denied, everybody's rights are imperiled.
In addition to the litigation for which the
ACLU has been known for many years, we also educate the public,
inform the media, lobby legislators, organize grassroots activists,
and disseminate information about our constitutional freedoms.
Our History
We are nonprofit and nonpartisan and have grown
from a roomful of civil liberties activists at its founding
in 1920 to an organization of more than 500,000 members and
supporters. As the largest public interest law firm in the
world, we handle nearly 6,000 court cases annually from our
offices in almost every state.
How We Are Structured
The ACLU is composed of two separately incorporated
nonprofit organizations: The ACLU and the ACLU Foundation.
The ACLU Foundation conducts litigation and public education
programs in support of civil liberties. The Foundation is a
501(c)3 tax-deductible charitable organization, and contributions
to it are deductible to the extent allowed by law. The ACLU
conducts membership outreach and organizing, legislative advocacy
and lobbying. It is supported primarily by membership dues.
It is a 501(c)4 organization, which is tax-exempt, but donations
to it are not tax-deductible. The majority of support for the
ACLU and ACLU Foundation comes from individuals, who believe
in the guarantees of freedom, justice, equality, and fair treatment
under the law. The ACLU and its affiliates receive no government
funding and never charge clients for legal representation.
The ACLU South Carolina National Office
The ACLU South Carolina is a national office
of the ACLU and is the state’s guardian of freedom. Working
to promote and defend civil liberties throughout the state,
our mission includes a variety of legal, legislative and public
education programs encompassing a broad range of constitutional
issues.
Our Interim Executive Director is Graham Boyd,
a director of one of the ACLU’s national projects and
a native South Carolinian. Graham has a deep connection
to South Carolina. He was born in Charleston, he was an Eagle
Scout in Troop 1 (the state’s first Boy Scout troop),
he graduated as valedictorian from Spartanburg High School,
and, after earning a summa cum laude degree from Yale University,
he worked as a legislative assistant for Congresswoman Liz
Patterson when she represented the Upstate area. As an
ACLU attorney, Graham has argued before the U.S. Supreme Court
and in courts across the nation, including a case out of Goose
Creek, South Carolina, in which he represented school children
who were held at gunpoint by police. Contact Graham directly
at graham@aclusouthcarolina.org.
Anne Newell, a resident of Charleston and well-respected
organizational and management consultant, joins Graham as acting
as Interim Operations Manager. Contact Anne directly at anne@aclusouthcarolina.org.
We are deeply grateful for your commitment
to the ACLU and look forward to being in touch with you as
we build our team and expand our efforts to protect constitutional
freedoms for all people in South Carolina and across the United
States.
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