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.