ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) ON FIRE As Silicon Valley Give Money & Mentoring & Coffee Shops Kick In
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Georgetown Law professor David Cole announced in July that he would be joining the ACLU as National Legal Director. Cole then envisioned a Hillary Clinton presidency and the headway he's make expanding civil rights of Americans with her as president.
By January 2017, Cole's life had been turned upside down, and he joined the ACLU the same month as the Trump administration went into high gear. Rather than plotting progress on key issues, Cole and his team plunged into their first battle, suing the Trump administration on behalf of visa-holders detained under the president's executive order travel ban. The Washingtonian continues an in-depth interview with Cole.
Record Fundraising
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) typically raises $4 million in online donations in a year. The organization which sent lawyers into major US airports all weekend, reports that it raised $24.1 last weekend.
The organization's Executive Director Anthony Romero called the level of support "unprecedented" as Americans were horrified by President Trump's executive order on immigration which suspended all refugee admissions for 120 days and blocked citizens of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen from entering the US for 90 days.
It's not only liberals supporting the organization. Washington state Republican and King County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Satterberg said after the election, he and his wife signed up.
Former Republican state party chairman Chris Vance also says he just signed up for the ACLU. Last weekend, while reading the text of the refugee and Muslim country travel executive order, he said he just couldn’t take it anymore.
“I went online and joined the ACLU right then, over my morning coffee,” Vance says. “I did it because they are like the tea party — they know how to fight. It looks like they are going to be the main group filing lawsuits against Donald Trump, so I’m in.”
At the time of the election, the Washington state ACLU group had 18,000 members. The local chapter assisted with the case that resulted Friday in Seattle US District Court Judge James Robart temporarily halting the Muslim ban nationwide. As of Friday, the Washington state chapter's membership had climbed past 50,000.
Bowling Green Massacre Victims Fund
.With massive legal expenses ahead fighting the Trump administration, the ACLU got very clever in response to Trump's Kellyanne Conway's assertion of a Muslim terrorist massacre that never happened. Read on: Conway Agrees "No Massacre" In Bowling Green | Sally Yates Stands Firm Against the Boys Club. Yates was the acting attorney general fired by Trump Monday night for refusing to defend his ban.
The ACLU scrambled to erect a website called The Bowling Green Massacre Victims Fund, with all donations going to the organization.
Coffee drinkers at over 125 coffee shops across America came together this weekend in a Feb. 3-5 fundraiser for the ACLU. Sprudge, a coffee blog best known for its coffee culture articles and coffee product reviews has launched a #RefugeesWelcome #YesEqual campaign, using coffee as the vehicle that unites as all to support the cause. Sprudge is working with 26 partners and will match the first $500 raised by each partner, for an additional $13,000.
Corporate America -- Especially Silicon Valley Rallied for ACLU
1. The ride-hailing company Lyft has pledged $1 million to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in response to President Donald Trump’s immigration ban.
Lyft co-founders John Zimmer and Logan Green announced their decision to donate money in equal installments over four years to help “defend our constitution.”
The email condemned Trump’s executive order halting the Syrian refugee program and banning entry from seven largely Muslim countries to the US. The ban also covers US green card holders wanting to travel outside the US and return, for a minimum of 90 days.
2. GV, formerly Google Ventures, has put a donate ACLU button on its website. "Please join us in donating to the ACLU, which defends American values of liberty and equal opportunity," the site reads. Google CEO Sundar Pichai adds his voice with a bold-lettered quote: "Let's not let fear defeat our values."
Google donated a total of $4 million to the ACLU, with $2 million coming from Google employees, which delivered matching donations of $2 million from the corporation.
3. Nearly 1000 Twitter employees donated $1.59 million to fight Trump on immigration.
Initially, 925 Twitter staff pulled together a donation of over $530,000. That was then matched by CEO Jack Dorsey and Executive Chairman Omid Kordestani to take the total to $1.59 million, according a company-wide email obtained by TechCrunch.
A Twitter spokesperson confirmed the donation and the numbers involved.
“Our work is far from done. In the coming months we’ll see a flurry of legal challenges, legislative pushes and public pronouncements. But as long as civil liberties are threatened, I’m proud to know that as individuals we will stand up to defend freedom and look after people,” Twitter General Counsel Vijaya Gadde wrote in the memo.
Brilliant: ACLU Gets Free Mentoring At Y Combinator
Silicon Valley is also taking the ACLU into its startup accelerator Y Combinator. The ACLU will receive mentorship free of charge, a network of powerful connections in tech and a chance to present itself to investors on Demo Day, writes TechCrunch.
The partnership came about after YC partner Kat Manalac reached out to ACLU executive director Anthony Romero for feedback on a forthcoming “request for startups” in the civic tech space. The ACLU asked for help with a project, and YC figured it could do the most good by formally admitting the ACLU to its accelerator.
