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American Civil Liberties Union of Florida 2000 Annual Report To The Membership
During the weeks following this acrimonious presidential election, the ACLU attempted to advance one neutral principle: all voters have a right to a fair and reliable election in which their intentions are correctly recorded and accurately counted. We advanced this principle in court briefs, media interviews, letterstothe editor and now will continue to do so through the creation of a Florida Equal Voting Rights Project.
Thanks to a generous donation by the Steve and Michele Kirsch Foundation, the ACLU of Florida now has the resources to challenge, prospectively, the differential use of voting technology in Florida.
Aside from ensuring equal voting rights for all, we will also need to continue our daytoday work defending free speech, students' rights, religious freedom and a variety of other civil liberties issues before local school boards and city and county commissions.
But this is also a time to take stock and review what we have achieved this year and the battles in which we are still engaged.
Censorship - We can take pride in having ended censorship of arts and theater groups when the federal court struck down the cultural embargo on Cuban artists and the "Cuba affidavit" that had been imposed by MiamiDade County officials.
Equal Rights - We helped defend the constitutionality of the City of Gainesville's program for health and other benefits for unmarried heterosexual and samesex partners of City employees.
School Vouchers - We are still working to prevent the state from diverting tax dollars from the public schools to private and mostly parochial schools.
But, frankly, victories in court are fragile and tenuous. The protection of constitutional freedoms depends not only on the cases we win, but also on public support for the values and principles of the Bill of Rights.
Since 1920, the ACLU has grown to more than 300,000 members nationwide and almost 12,000 in Florida. We are able to carry on the legacy of our founders because of the strong support we receive from our members - including those members who also make generous tax-deductible contributions to the ACLU Foundation of Florida in addition to their membership dues.
Today, we are more active than ever in protecting individual rights and we will continue to be at the forefront of freedom in 2001.
