American Civil Liberties Union And American Internet Rights(2001- 2015)

This paper mainly expounds the American civil liberties union and American internet freedom rights after the events of 911, the American civil liberties union is a civil rights organization formed by Roger Nash Baldwin in 1920, it helps these citizens whose freedom rights are been legally violated with Litigation lawsuits. The organization is committed to defend and maintain people’s freedom and rights that is given by the constitution and the law to all the people of the United States, including:the First Amendment rights of citizens, equal protection of the law, due process rights,citizens’ privacy rights and the legally interests of other social groups.In its long-term social activities, the ACLU always consider the defend of all Americans’ freedom rights that assigned by the first amendment as one of the most important work,nowadays, no matter in organization scale or influence, ACLU has become one of the most important civil organizations.After the 911 attack, the United States government’s actions to protect national security by violating civil liberties once again become a hot topic of controversy. As a result, the contradiction and conflict about national security and civil liberty has become a inevitable public opinion debate in the United States, also attracted the attention of the international community. As an important civil rights organization,ACLU has greater influence in opposing the Patriot Act and expose the United States monitoring events, and its 90 years of development history and the American modern citizen freedom coincide with each other, therefore the study of ACLU will also contribute to a better understanding of the development process of American civil liberties movement.The first chapter mainly introduces the general situation of ACLU. ACLU promote and defend the rights and freedoms of every citizen of the union through legislation, organize social activities, lawsuit cases, education propaganda.Since its inception in the early 20 th century, ACLU has experienced the totalitarian oppression,anti-Communist sentiment during the cold war, the conservative opposition, several times’ organization change.The union continuously develops in the struggle for civilliberties, now it becomes a national civil rights organization, and play an important role in the struggle of American citizens’ freedom.The second chapter introduce the main content of the ACLU activities in history,that is to promote equality, maintain the public liberty rights and guarantee the judicial justice, and to defend democracy. The organization on the one hand,imply effective social supervision to the power of the government,always maintained a vigilant cautious attitude for the government’s policy and execution. but also promote legislation of citizens’ freedom and rights and expand social civil rights activities.After 90 years efforts, ACLU has a lot of achievements, its work safeguard the intent of the Bill of Rights, and maintain their long-held principle, namely limiting government’s power and protecting citizens’ freedom and rights, and ACLU is known as the most authoritative “champion of civil liberties” and “civil rights’ watchdog”.The third chapter discusses the generalization of the United States’ terrorism strategy after 911,and the violation to American civil liberties. As come into the network age, the conflict between the network technology and the boundaries of the public’s right to freedom is increasingly apparent. The United States congress formulated the "Patriot Act”in 2001 after 911, and modified many of the existing monitoring laws and regulations. The " Patriot Act”can allow the government of the United States to intervene and limit citizens’ freedom and rights in the name of national security.So, the contradiction between national security and civil liberties once again become a focus opinion in America today.The fourth chapter discusses the activities that American civil liberties union fight for citizens’ network freedom rights. The development of civil liberties and the ACLU’s long-term efforts are inseparable,in the process of ACLU’s long-term fights,it not only maintain the protection of citizens’ freedom and rights by the constitution and laws, but also filled the substantial content with its law cases. Civil freedom and rights protection promote more people participate in protecting their own rights and interests voluntarily, and promote the democratization process of the society. At the same time,the ACLU’s high alert to the government is affecting American people, to become a powerful government’s overseers. Surely, after the United States ‘generalization of terrorism strategy, the contradiction between national security and civil libertieshighlights again, how ACLU continues to fight for civil liberties in this situation would be a major challenge.