In past decades, the ACLU has tried to shape public opinion on a variety of political issues, such showing its opposition to a movement in the 1940s to bar radical groups from appearing on the ballot, said Samuel Walker, a professor emeritus of criminology at the University of Nebraska and author of a history of the nearly 100-year old group.
After the U.S. Supreme Court became more conservative in the 1970s and 1980s, the ACLU built up its political lobbying efforts in Washington under the belief that it could choke off bad proposals in Congress, rather than waiting for them to become law and having to challenge them in court, said Walker, who is also a member of the ACLU.
"The ebb and flow of it depends on changing external circumstances," Walker said. "So the election of Donald Trump and an attack on a broad range of civil liberty issues has brought advocacy to the fore."
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Follow Jacques Billeaud at twitter.com/jacquesbilleaud. His work can be found at https://bit.ly/2GGWEPO.
