Welcome to the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee (ACLU-TN) website! ACLU-TN is the only organization in the state dedicated to promoting and protecting constitutional rights. Our goal is to translate the Bill of Rights into an everyday reality for all Tennesseans.

2009: The Year in Review

ACLU Founder Roger Baldwin spoke often about “traveling hopefully” in his pursuit of justice and equality. Now celebrating my 25th year at ACLU-TN, I continue to share his optimism.

This is an especially exciting year for ACLU-TN. National ACLU has designated us as one of ten affiliate participants in their “strategic affiliate initiative.” With the infusion of these national resources over the next four years, ACLU-TN will seize the momentum from our past accomplishments and will mount a major campaign to promote and protect civil liberties and civil rights throughout the state.

This national recognition and support results in part from our pivotal moments in the course of defending Tennesseans’ constitutional freedoms. We continue to frame and reframe the civil liberties discourse in the state, bringing a civil-libertarian perspective into important public policy issues and often on behalf of culturally marginalized minority groups.

These pivotal moments include: being the first public voice to speak out against privatization of the Tennessee prison system (1985); spearheading the successful defeat of legislation to chill the teaching of evolution in public schools(1993); challenging the state Abortion statute and establishing a Tennessee constitutional right to privacy (2000); initiating a campaign that led to the enactment of state anti-racial profiling laws (2001); and leading a successful campaign to establish for the first time in Tennessee “sexual orientation “ as a protected category in state law (2003).

In addition, the radical religious right has targeted Tennessee and ACLU-TN’s defense of civil liberties and civil rights. No longer are we only challenging our traditional adversary- the Government- we are now confronting private well-funded religiously and politically-inspired adversaries. These groups, like the Alliance Defense Fund, the American Center for Law and Justice and the Rutherford Institute, are intervening in our cases and persuading elected officials to adopt mean-spirited and unconstitutional policies. Our work becomes even more important.

ACLU-TN continues to use an integrative advocacy model to pursue our mission. This approach integrates a unique set of strategies and tactics, including public education, advocacy, legislative lobbying, organizing, coalition-building and litigation in order to achieve the best outcome.

Highlights from our work this year include:

Religious Freedom – We remain in the forefront in the battle to protect religious freedom. Responding to frequent concerns about religious activities in public schools, we drafted and distributed our “Know Your Rights: Religion in Public Schools” brochure to all Tennessee public school systems. We are currently challenging government–sponsored religious activities across the state, including front-burner cases in Cheatham, Davidson and Wilson counties. In Cheatham and Wilson counties we are focused on traditional religious freedom issues in the public schools. In Davidson County we successfully advocated for the right of student preachers to hold church services for the homeless in a public park.

Reproductive Freedom – Committed to ensuring that Tennesseans can make informed decisions about their reproductive health without government interference, ACLU-TN continues to focus on the effort to amend our state constitution to take away the right to privacy as it relates to abortion. Introduced (and defeated) in every legislative session since 2001, the initiative is the direct result of ACLU/Planned Parenthood’s successful challenge to the Tennessee Abortion Statute. This year, however, the TGA passed the resolution, launching a process that could result in a popular referendum in 2014. Presently we are building a coalition to mount an aggressive public education campaign. In addition, we worked with law enforcement to introduce legislation to prohibit the shackling of incarcerated pregnant women. The bill passed the Senate and next year we will focus on its passage in the House.

LGBT Rights – ACLU-TN is dedicated to extending equal protection and anti-discrimination laws to the LGBT community. We achieved several significant victories, including 1) defending the equal protection rights of a lesbian mother in Gibson County whose partner of nine years was prevented from residing in their home under the antiquated “paramour clause,” regardless of “the children’s best interest;” and 2) challenging viewpoint discrimination by Knox and Davidson County school systems who were blocking informational and political LGBT websites but providing access to anti-gay sites. In addition, we worked to defeat a legislative effort to prevent school teachers and counselors from discussing sexual orientation and we began mobilizing the child welfare community to join with us to oppose the bill prohibiting LGBT couples from adopting.

For the first time in Tennessee’s history, a local non-discrimination ordinance which protects current and prospective employees from discrimination based on sexual orientation and/or gender identity passed in Nashville. ACLU-TN was an active participant in the coalition that supported this bill, strategizing with lead sponsors and mobilizing our membership to lobby their council members.

Freedom of Speech and Expression – The hallmark of our democracy is the right to communicate and be heard and to access public records. Our free speech work includes: defending an anti-war activist’s right to sell politically-themed t-shirts on the Internet; successfully representing an out-of-state journalist who was denied access to public records because of the “citizen-only” provision in state law; and spearheading and drafting a friend-of-the-court brief supporting records-disclosure by private prison corporations with state-prison management contracts.

Immigrant Rights – The mobilization and counter-mobilization around Nashville’s English-only ballot initiative in January 2009 was a pivotal political moment in Tennessee. ACLU-TN was a founding partner of Nashville for All of Us, a coalition dedicated to creating a welcoming and inclusive community for immigrants. As I stated in my letter-to-the-editor in the New York Times (1-16-09), this mobilization was a “crucial community-defining issue” that brought out “a broad coalition of business, labor, religious, civil liberties, civil rights and social services groups” who opposed English-only “not only on economic grounds, but also for moral, religious, social and legal reasons.”

As part of our continuing effort to create a welcoming and just community we are working with our Nashville allies to address the abuses, such as racial and ethnic profiling and due process violations, that arise in the implementation of the 287(g) program. This federal program authorizes state and local law enforcement to assist in identifying prospective deportees. We have created a portfolio of materials that describe the program, have participated in rights-awareness workshops and continue to meet with elected and appointed officials to explain the adverse impact of the program.

Fairness in the Justice System – ACLU-TN’s commitment to equal protection and due process centers on death penalty issues and racial profiling. We continue to work with our allies to persuade the Death Penalty Study Committee to release their comprehensive report on accuracy and fairness in the implementation of the death penalty in Tennessee. Having helped to create this committee, ACLU-TN, over the last year, has monitored the hearings leading up to the findings and recommendations in the report.

ACLU-TN will soon issue its report on racial profiling in Jackson. Our 18-month “Justice in Jackson” campaign mobilized local residents and collected data on racial profiling in this city. The campaign consisted of interviews with local African-American leaders and residents; data analysis of law enforcement records; and a rights awareness town hall meeting.

Our superb team continues to translate the guarantees of the Bill of Rights into a reality for Tennesseans and is bringing our exciting campaign to all corners of the state. Joined by a dedicated board of directors, volunteer attorneys, office volunteers, coalition partners and our members and supporters, we are making a difference. Thank you for standing with us to protect our freedoms!

Hedy Weinberg

Executive Director