2010 Annual Report

For our annual report this year, we have chosen to provide you with samples of our work protecting and promoting civil liberties around the state. As you can see, our efforts take us to every corner of Virginia and feature successes stemming from our litigation, advocacy, and lobbying on issues ranging from free speech to due process to voting rights to religious liberty to racial justice and the equal treatment of gay and lesbian individuals.

But this is only part of the ACLU of Virginia picture. In the 2010 General Assembly we lobbied for or against 75 bills affecting civil liberties by both deploying the ACLU staff and engaging more than 1,000 volunteer activists to assist us.

The ACLU of Virginia is the most effective voice for civil liberties in the state. It’s hard to count all the times we appear on the radio, television, and in newspapers and blogs since we are so constantly in demand, but it is well over 1,500 per year.

We also have special programs focused on a single issue. Our Voter Restoration Project is slowly reforming Virginia’s felon disenfranchisement law, and this year we will launch the Patricia M. Arnold Women’s Rights Project.

Our Northern Virginia Chapter has some of the best educational programs of any local chapter in the nation. If you haven’t been to their summer “Crabfest” or winter issues brunch, you’re missing out on two special opportunities to meet with other ACLU supporters and catch up on civil liberties in Virginia. We also have six active college chapters that are serving as platforms for energizing a new generation of civil libertarians.

Behind all this is a dedicated volunteer board of directors, as well as a panel of lawyers who not only select the cases we file but also provide pro bono legal services.

Of course, none of this would happen without our generous donors. What we do starts with you and simply would not be possible without you.