The Center For Democracy The issues in this Center focus on strengthening democratic values and ensuring a fair and accountable democracy through national security, First Amendment, and privacy and technology advocacy programs.

Free Speech & Assembly

Freedom of speech is protected in the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights and is guaranteed to all Americans. As a core founding principle, our access to this right plays a crucial role in maintaining an active democracy. Since 1920, the ACLU has worked to preserve free speech in all forms, including the right to assemble, protest, and petition for all individuals regardless of how unpopular some of the groups that utilize these rights may be.

Privacy & Technology

The ACLU is committed to actively promoting responsible uses of technology that enhance privacy and freedom, while opposing those that undermine our freedoms and move us closer to a surveillance society. Challenges in the areas of censorship and privacy are constantly arising with the onset of new technologies. Unchecked government surveillance intrudes upon Americans' right to privacy, dangerously chilling speech and political dissent.

National Security

The Constitution guards against violations of individual rights in the name of national security. There has never been a more urgent need to preserve fundamental privacy protections then there is today. Indefinite detention, many Patriot Act provisions and government-sponsored torture programs transcend the bounds of law and our most treasured values in the name of national security. The ACLU promotes the belief that we can be both safe and free.

The Center For Equality This Center will continue the long ACLU tradition of striving to make tangible America’s aspiration of equality for all people, regardless of their racial or national background or their mental or physical abilities.

Immigrants' Rights

The reactionary forces pushing Arizona's racial profiling law will stop at nothing to see it enacted. And they'll keep trying to spread their misguided tactics across the nation and here in South Dakota. Only a vigorous rejection of this dangerous, un-American law will prevent it from spreading to our state of South Dakota. The ACLU of South Dakota was successful in helping to defeat an Arizona-type racial profiling law that was introduced in the 2011 legislative session.

Voting Rights

Established in 1965, the Voting Rights Project has worked to protect the gains in political participation since passage of the historic Voting Rights Act (VRA) that same year. Since its inception, the Voting Rights Project has aggressively and successfully challenged efforts that dilute minority voting strength or obstruct the ability of minority communities to elect candidates of their choice.

The Center For Justice The Center for Justice will tackle crime, punishment, and over-incarceration as crucial issues in our unfinished agenda to achieve justice.

Prisoners' Rights

The ACLU is dedicated to ensuring that our prisons, jails, and juvenile facilities comply with the Constitution, federal law, and international human rights principles, and to addressing the crisis of over-incarceration today. The ACLU of SD is principally concerned that the criminal justice system treats women and girls fairly regardless of race and that it protects the healthcare choices and safety of all women in custody.

Juvenile & Students' Rights

The ACLU actively supports efforts to remedy or eliminate school policies that exclude students, disproportionately of color, from the South Dakota school system by channeling them into the juvenile justice system. The “School to Prison Pipeline” treats students in such a manner as to violate their basic rights to due process and equal protection and should not have a place in our educational system. Violations of the constitutional rights of students are far too common in public schools today. Student newspapers and library materials are censored. Lockers, back packs and even students are searched without reasonable suspicion. Female students are excluded from certain extracurricular activities, and gay students are intimidated into silence. The ACLU works to ensure that Constitutional rights are enforced in South Dakota’s public schools.

The Center For Liberty This Center will redouble the ACLU's commitment to the premise that each person in America — regardless of gender, sexual orientation, or chosen beliefs — is sovereign over her/his life and body.

LGBT Rights

Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual and Transgendered people are not legally protected from discrimination federally or in South Dakota. The ACLU has advocated on behalf of LGBT people for over 70 years. Our mission is to foster a society in which LGBT people and people with HIV/AIDS enjoy the basic rights of equality, privacy and personal autonomy, and freedom of expression and association. Advancing LGBT rights brings us closer to the promise of full equality for all.

Religious Liberty

The Bill of Rights protects us from government interference with our religion, or from forcing any religious view upon us. The ACLU works to maintain this essential freedom by enforcing a separation of government and individual religious choice. We are dedicated to maintaining that separation to preserve religious freedom for all people.

Reproductive Freedom

The ACLU protects everyone's right to make informed decisions free from government interference about whether and when to become a parent. The ACLU of SD works with other groups in the state to safeguard reproductive rights for all women in South Dakota.

Women's Rights

Since 1972, the ACLU has been working to systematically end gender discrimination in the workplace and throughout all avenues of society. Women have made great strides in the fight for equality, but gender bias continues to create huge barriers in criminal justice reform for incarcerated women and in access to educational and work opportunities for many, especially poor women, women of color, and immigrant women. The ACLU continues to advocate for paycheck fairness and workplace protections for women across the country.