American Civil Liberties Union

American Civil Liberties Union Foundation

125 Broad Street, 18th floor

New York, N.Y. 10004-2400

National Capital Area Civil Liberties Union

2400 14th Street, NW

Washington, DC 20036-5920

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is the largest and best known organization in the United States whose mission is defending the liberties guaranteed by the Bill of Rights. They defend those rights by litigation, lobbying, education, and other activities.

Contributions to the ACLU are not tax-deductible, because they engage in lobbying. They are exempt from federal tax under section 501(c)(4). Their 501(c)(3) subsidiary is the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation (ACLUF). Contributions to the ACLUF are tax-deductible. The Walter H. McClenon Fund, Inc. (General Endowment) has contributed a total of $1665 to the American Civil Liberties Union between 1976 and 1999. (The unincorporated fund previously contributed $229.25 to the ACLU.) The Fund (General Endowment) has also contributed $50 to the ACLUF.

The National Capital Area Civil Liberties Union is the greater Washington affiliate or chapter of the ACLU. The Fund has not made contributions to the chapter, having made them to the national organization.

We have in the past in general followed the policy that we would support the ACLU when possible. We have not always supported all of the ACLU’s actions, but in general have thought that they have done more good than harm. In some states, atheist leadership in the ACLU has wasted its resources in symbolic fights against religious symbolism. However, the ACLU was often the most reliable opponent of the abuses of power of the “war on terrorism” in the Bush Administration. (A war on terrorism is a very bad idea. Wars can only be fought against enemies who can be identified and defeated, such as Al Qaede, not against types of bad behavior such as terrorism.)

Unfortunately, the Fund has not been able to obtain financial information from the ACLU in recent years. After the last categorization expired in 2005, letters were written to the ACLU requesting financial and other information in August 2005, February 2006, November 2006, July 2007, September 2007, September 2009, and April 2012. These letters have not been answered. Letters were also sent in September 2007, September 2009, and April 2012 to the National Capital Area affiliate. (Previously, in and before 2000, the ACLU did provide us with financial information when we requested it.)

I do not think that we can resume support of the ACLU until they can provide us with written information, and obtaining that information has been persistently difficult. We can reasonably categorize the American Civil Liberties Union itself as “ineligible” for contributions from the Special Endowment because we have enough information to say that it engages in lobbying that is not entitled to support. I do not intend to write another letter to the ACLU following up on 25 April 2012, since I think that the lack of response to multiple letters over multiple years speaks for itself, although I have no objection to another Trustee doing that. I do not intend to telephone either the ACLU or its local affiliate (as I was advised in the past by one Trustee to do), although I have no objection to any other Trustee doing so.

Unless another Trustee wants to continue to get information from an organization that hasn’t provided it to me, I recommend that the various ACLU organizations be categorized as providing “insufficient information for evaluation”, except that the ACLU should be “ineligible” for contributions from the Special Endowment. In particular, the recommendations are as follows:

	General Endowment Status	Special Endowment Status
American Civil Liberties Union	Insufficient Information for Evaluation	Ineligible
American Civil Liberties Union Foundation	Insufficient Information for Evaluation	Insufficient Information for Evaluation
National Capital Area Civil Liberties Union	Insufficient Information for Evaluation	Insufficient Information for Evaluation

Respectfully submitted,

Robert McClenon

22 July 2012