Patriot Act energizes the ACLU in Jersey
The ranks of donors and members swell
BY KATE COSCARELLI, Star-Ledger from the Web, November 1, 2004
Newark, NJ -- After years in the doldrums, the New Jersey chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union is fighting big cases again.
In the past year, its lawyers helped secure free speech rights of protesters in Newark, challenged the state's DNA law, sued the Manalapan police for targeting black teenagers and started offering counseling to people -- especially Arabs and Muslims -- questioned by the FBI.
It is thriving in other ways, too.
Its bank accounts have jumped to $3 million. Membership and staff have more than doubled in recent years and it has a new 6,000-square-foot office in Newark.
ACLU officials say much of the resurgence can be summed up in two words: John Ashcroft.
The U.S. attorney general's enforcement of the 2001 law expanding law enforcement's surveillance and investigative powers in response to domestic terrorism attacks has created a series of dramatic civil rights cases, roused many of the ACLU's old friends and brought in news ones as well.
Nationally, membership is up 30 percent and donations are also higher since 9/11.
"John Ashcroft is our best fund-raiser," said Frank Askin, a New Jersey and national ACLU board member.
One of the group's biggest targets has been the Patriot Act, which was adopted in the days after the attacks and grants investigators vast access to information.
Time and again, the ACLU has challenged the measure on grounds it violates free speech and privacy rights.
In a high-profile case, the national group scored a victory this fall when a federal judge in New York struck down a provision of the act allowing government searches of the Internet and telephone records.
New Jersey has proved fertile ground for related challenges.
The detention of hundreds of mostly Arab immigrants in the Hudson and Passaic county jails, secret immigration proceedings and alleged discrimination by airlines gave the state ACLU chapter a series of opportunities to press cases charging civil rights abuses.
Plus, the detentions led the state affiliate to hire an Arabic-speaking immigrant rights specialist who works with Muslim leaders and arranges legal counseling for people questioned by federal agents, said Ed Barocas, legal director.
The ACLU was founded in 1920. It grew out of the National Civil Liberties Bureau, a legal organization to provide attorneys or expertise in civil rights cases.
The group criticized the treatment of interred Japanese-Americans during World War II, played a role in the Brown vs. Board of Education lawsuit that ended legal school segregation, and was involved in the Roe vs. Wade landmark reproductive rights case.
It has also defended the free speech rights of groups like the Ku Klux Klan.
New Jersey's ACLU chapter was founded in the mid-1950s, Askin said.
The post-Sept. 11 climate also brought new discrimination and free speech suits for the state ACLU.
In 2001, it sued Continental Airlines for discrimination after removing Michael Dasrath and Edward Cureg from a flight because they were "brown-skinned."
It also won the right of protesters from the Coalition for Peace and Justice to hold a rally in Pleasantville opposing the war in Afghanistan.
Officials from the Justice Department did not return calls seeking comment.
But Ashcroft is just a part of the story behind the invigorated New Jersey ACLU.
Many in the state say the recent upswing began even before the terrorist attacks.
Five years ago, the board of trustees replaced Ed Martone, its longtime executive director.
Deborah Jacobs, who is not a lawyer, was brought on in 1999 and has approached the job like a CEO.
Jacobs and board members now speak at roughly 100 community events a year, ranging from debates to a discussion held recently following the play "Words of Choice" about reproductive rights in Teaneck.
Raising money is central to Jacobs' mission and a top priority of the board.
Even small donors get personal thank-you notes and big donors get a phone call or visit from Jacobs or a board member.
"There has been a change of culture in the organization. In the old days money was kind of looked at as evil.
What we've done is educate the board that money equals programs," said Ellen Samuel, board president.
Fund-raising netted $240,000 last year, compared with $20,000 in 1998, Jacobs said.
Much of the money comes from 13,000 members, and many give more than the $20 in dues.
The chapter receives about $70,000 in annual grants for immigration and reproductive rights work from a pair of private, like-minded foundations.
And this year it also got a grant from a human rights group for ex-offender voting rights efforts.
Even real estate broker Christian Benedetto Jr., who arranged the lease on the new ACLU office, was approached for a donation.
He wrote a $1,000 check to be a life member.
And longtime colleagues are being targeted for more than just moral support.
Jon Shure, who heads the nonpartisan group that studies New Jersey public policy, had worked with the group many times, but never donated.
"I don't know if I got material, but I do now. There is a lot of reaching out going on," he said.
And the chapter benefited in recent years from legal fees from cases like ones about racial profiling by the State Police as well as a suit against a Nutley swim club that refused minorities.
Then in October 2001, an anonymous New Jersey resident died, leaving $5 million to the ACLU.
The local chapter kept about $2 million, Jacobs said.
The additional funding has meant that the chapter could increase its staff from four to 10, including a lobbyist and development director.
The legal docket also expanded, Barocas said.
The cash infusion has allowed the agency to start thinking out the future.
To keep momentum going, public education and outreach are now top priorities, Jacobs said.
Several things are being tried to get more people involved. The Web site has been revamped.
A political art contest is in the works. Publications have been translated into languages such as Creole and Urdu, and tips about voting rights and what to do when approached by police have been shrunk to wallet-sized cards for easy carrying.
"It's not just the liberal establishment that cares about these issues. Today, everyone cares about these issues," Jacobs said.
"All the things the government has done has made people aware that they need the Bill of Rights more than ever."
Kate Coscarelli covers the business of law. She may be reached at kcoscarelli@starledger.com or (973) 392-4147.
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