A member of the ACLU observes a polling station during voting in the 2016 presidential election at Desert Pines High School in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S November 8, 2016.
- The American Civil Liberties Union has filed more than 100 legal actions against the Trump administration.
- The ACLU's membership has soared since President Donald Trump was elected, and the group has received millions of dollars in fundraising.
- Many people remain divided over the ACLU's tactics. The group received widespread criticism after defending neo-Nazi protestors in Charlottesville, Virginia, for example.
Three days after Donald Trump was elected president, the American Civil Liberties Union wrote a memo urging him to reconsider several controversial campaign promises.
Trump's plans to deport 11 million undocumented immigrants, ban Muslims from entering the US, reduce women's access to abortion services, reauthorize torture tactics, and open up libel laws were "not simply un-American and wrong-headed," the ACLU said, but "unlawful and unconstitutional."
"If you do not reverse course and endeavor to make these campaign promises a reality, you will have to contend with the full firepower of the ACLU at your every step," the civil liberties
Trump ignored the warning. The ACLU, in response, has kept its word. On the one-year anniversary of Trump's election, the ACLU wrote a full-page letter in The New York Times, vowing to continue its fight against many of his policies.
Since Trump's inauguration, the ACLU has filed at least 112 legal actions, including ethical complaints, calls for investigations, Freedom of Information Act requests, and 56 full-scale lawsuits against the sitting president and his administration, ACLU spokesperson Thomas Dresslar told Business Insider.
As a nonpartisan organization, the group has a long history of targeting presidents. It fought former President Barack Obama on mass surveillance and drones, former President George W. Bush on the torture program and deportation policies, and former President Bill Clinton on the lack of prisoner rights and indefinite detention of noncitizens.
When Business Insider asked the ACLU to provide a comprehensive list of lawsuits filed against Obama and Bush during their presidencies, the group said it does not "have any such list." But Dresslar said the number of actions filed against the Trump administration is far higher.
"Trump's policies ... coupled with his lack of understanding and respect for the rule of law amount to a constitutional crisis, the likes of which we have never seen," said ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero.
Many liberals and never-Trumpers welcome the aggressiveness. Within Trump's first five months in office, the ACLU's membership nearly quadrupled to 1.6 million, according to Romero. The newfound publicity also helped with fundraising. When Trump formally announced his first travel ban, the ACLU hauled in a record $24 million from 356,000 online donations.
Thomson Reuters
Members of the Ku Klux Klan face counter-protesters as they rally in support of Confederate monuments in Charlottesville, Virginia.
The ACLU has critics on both sides of the political spectrum. In August, many were outraged after the ACLU announced it would defend the right of white supremacists and neo-Nazis to march in Charlottesville, Virginia.
While the ACLU's willingness to defend anyone, regardless of political affiliation, has won it praise from people on both the right and the left, it has also divided the group internally over how it should approach some of today's most controversial issues. These organizational challenges - as well as efforts to hold the president accountable - are unlikely to go away anytime soon.
Here's a recap of some of the ACLU's most prominent legal challenges against the Trump administration so far: