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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: KLP who wrote (130239)	8/7/2005 12:54:27 PM
From: Ilaine	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793799

KLP - this is getting really weird. Serious, has the government in Washington State blocked Google or something? Are they taking tips from the Chinese? If you want to know about the structure of the ACLU, how about looking on their website? aclu.org The main office of the ACLU is in New York City. The main office of the Federalist Society is in Washington DC. I have no idea where the main office of the KKK is. If you've never done any volunteer work for a public advocacy group, and your only experience is with big private corporations, this might explain the confusion? You're imagining that there's some sort of plan here, that the big wheels decide, OK, "2004 will be the year of looking for statues of the ten commandments and bringing suits." Instead of responding to complaints made by citizens and deciding which cases have merit, which is the way it actually works. The group has a mission, and takes cases which are consistent with the mission. The mission of the ACLU is protecting the Bill of Rights (not all of it, they don't take 2nd Amendment cases, but the NRA does.)

To: KLP who wrote (130239)	8/7/2005 1:56:53 PM
From: D. Long	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793799

I think CB covered the answer, Karen. There's a national office that does the "business" of the organization, but there's no central coordination of caseloads. People file written complaints to local ACLU chapters, the complaints are sorted to weed out the (majority) that 1. don't have a constitutional issue, or 2. aren't the kind of cases the ACLU handles, like employment discrimination. Then the staff attorney(s) research the issue, and decide whether the case has promise as an issue of law. The staff attorney presents the promising cases to the local chapter's board, who decide whether or not to represent the complainants. Those that are rejected get a letter in the mail. Those that are accepted get represented by the ACLU. Most of the cases, like most legal cases, settle out of court and you never hear of them. Derek