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The American Civil Rights Union (ACRU) is an American legal organization founded by former Reagan Administration official Robert B. Carleson in 1998. It has been described by Human Events as a conservative alternative to the ACLU.^{[1][2][failed verification]} The ACRU has filed numerous amicus briefs in court cases involving election law and voting rights, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), gun ownership and property rights cases, and cases involving the Boy Scouts of America including the 2000 U.S. Supreme Court case of Boy Scouts of America v. Dale, defending the Boy Scouts' freedom of association right to create their own criteria for leaders and members.

When founder Carleson died in 2006, the Board of Directors elected to name his widow, Susan Carleson, a former Reagan administration official, Chairman and CEO.^[3]

The ACRU filed its first amicus brief in Boy Scouts of America v. Dale, a case in which the Supreme Court decided that the Boy Scouts could not be legally forced to change its moral standards and open its ranks to openly homosexual boys or leaders.^[3][4]

In 2013, the ACRU launched the Election Integrity Defense Project, and began suing counties that had more registered voters than age-eligible citizens. The lawsuits, filed under Section 8 of the National Voter Registration Act (Motor Voter Law), resulted in court decrees in Mississippi and Texas ordering counties to clean up their voter rolls and maintain their accuracy. In 2017, the ACRU expanded the project into the Voting Integrity Institute. Three Policy Board members -- J. Christian Adams, J. Kenneth Blackwell and Hans von Spakovsky -- serve on the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity.

Kenneth Klukowski is the ACRU General Counsel, J. Kenneth Blackwell and Robert Knight are Senior Fellows, Jan LaRue is a Senior Legal Analyst, and Carleson's widow, Susan, is chairwoman.^[5]

Members of the board of directors include Carleson, former Attorney General Ed Meese, David A. Leedom, Morton C. Blackwell, Wendy Borcherdt and William Bradford Reynolds. Members of the Policy Board include Carleson, Meese, Prof. Walter E. Williams, Amb. Curtin Winsor, Jr., Hans von Spakovsky, J. Christian Adams, Charles J. Cooper, Christopher Coates, William Bradford Reynolds, Doug Bandow, J. Kenneth Blackwell, and Kenneth A. Klukowski. ^[1] Robert Bork, James Q. Wilson, Kenneth W. Starr, Dean J. Clayburn La Force, Kenneth Y. Tomlinson and Linda Chavez served on the ACRU policy board.^[1]

The ACRU is the only private organization to successfully litigate to force counties to clean up their voter rolls. The ACRU argues in favor of laws that require people to show a photo ID in order to register and vote. The ACRU successfully sued counties in Mississippi and Texas that had more people registered to vote than age-eligible residents.^[6][7]

The ACRU has also filed a number of briefs in federal courts arguing that illegal immigrants should not be counted when counting the size of legislative districts in the reapportionment process.^[8]

The ACRU submits briefs in cases challenging rulings by various federal agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency, that the group believes violates private property rights. For example, in November 2014, the ACRU filed a brief siding with farmers in California's San Joaquin Valley who challenged a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that restricted water use in order to protect the endangered delta smelt. The ACRU did not succeed, with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit rejecting the challenge.^[9]

In 2011, the ACRU filed a brief in support of an Idaho couple's successful challenge of an EPA ruling that prevented them from building on their property.^[10]

The ACRU has filed briefs in every major case involving the Second Amendment,^{[citation needed]} including Heller v. District of Columbia (2008).^[11] A 2015 ACRU publication, "The Truth about Gun Control," contends that gun control is a tool used by tyrannical regimes and against African-Americans in the post-Civil War South.^[12]

The ACRU has filed briefs arguing in favor of retaining crosses and other religious symbols in various places, as in the Mount Soledad cross controversy^[13] and a case involving roadside memorials erected to honor slain Utah state troopers.^[14]

The ACRU filed a brief at the U.S. Supreme Court in defense of California Prop 8, a voter-approved amendment to the California State Constitution that defined marriage as only the union of one man and one woman recognition of same-sex marriage in State of California.^[15] The group also filed another brief in defense of the federal Defense of Marriage Act and the California amendment in Hollingsworth v. Perry.^[16] Both ACRU Senior Fellow Robert Knight^[17][18] and Senior Fellow Ken Blackwell^[19] have publicly supported traditional marriage.

• Judicial Watch

• ACRU website
• ACRU Charity Statistics
• ACRU Donors and Grants