Deborah Jacobs knows how to make headlines. In September, the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey called on the Department of Justice to investigate more than 400 allegations of police misconduct in Newark. The ACLU petition sparked reverberations all the way to Washington, D.C., and prompted front-page media reports. But that was nothing new for the local chapter, which has been taking on controversial issues since opening its doors in June 1960. The group will mark 50 years in the Garden State with an event November 4 at the Heldrich Hotel in New Brunswick.
Like about half the ACLU directors nationwide, Jacobs, 42, is not an attorney. She has guided the group through a growth spurt, raising chapter membership from 6,000 when she took the helm in 1999 to today’s more than 14,000. The chapter has also broadened its areas of concerns, expanding from the days when it fought book banning at the Clifton Public Library and racial profiling by the state police to contemporary issues such as gay rights, open government, and digital privacy.
What is the biggest misconception about the ACLU?
It is that we are anti-religious. In our early years, we didn’t pay a lot of attention to how we expressed our opinions on free speech and may have ruffled some feathers. The press like to cover things that are controversial, so when we take a case that involves separation of church and state, it gets a lot more press than when we take a case that involves the right of religious practice. We have a website, ACLU Fights for Christians. We are not anti anything.
What are the key recent cases?
One area where we have found results is police practices. We saw the terms of the state-police consent decree with the federal government be put into New Jersey law. We had an important role in changing the culture of policing in New Jersey. Our advocacy led to a lot of reforms in the department. We established an open governance project where we help people gain access to public records that they have been denied. We are looking at a modernization of the open public records act, because it does not take into account a lot of technology, such as school board members who text each other during a meeting under the table and do not want that publicized. And a better enforcement mechanism.
What else will you likely take on in the coming year?
We are involved in some important student rights cases, one of which is a challenge to the zero-tolerance [drug] policies in high schools. A student was suspended for having an outdated allergy tablet in the bottom of a backpack. [The policies] are outrageous.
We are going to get involved in a case in Camden, with 180 suspects, in which police planted evidence to frame people. We are going to represent someone in that.
We are also waiting for the governor to sign a law that would reduce the cost of open records. He said he is the open-government governor. There will be a lot of open-government issues ahead.
The bread and butter of our work is free speech, and we have been involved in that since our opening days. We still have to come to the defense of people who say they are told they cannot have political lawn signs in their yard after a certain time.
What trends do you see?
Some of our rights have advanced. In the 1970s we took hundreds of cases of people being charged with obscenity for speech in public; that has lessened. We have also seen tremendous strides in gay rights. In New Jersey today, we have some of the strongest protections for women’s health and safety.
We have more things related to technology and privacy violations. Issues like people posting anonymously online and then government officials trying to misuse the law to find out who said it.
How much does the response to September 11 still affect people’s rights?
The post-September 11 climate provoked a lot of fears in all directions. That is what is really responsible for our surge in membership. The political climate will help influence things, and it is important that we not give up our freedoms in response to our fears when it is not rational. I hope people will reject security measures that don’t keep us safer but just make us feel safer. That is a waste of money.
Is the jury still out on President Obama as relates to personal freedom and rights?
The ACLU as a whole has been frustrated not to see more progress on many issues, particularly the post-September 11 issues. Everyone understands [Obama] has a lot of challenges. For us, it is not about Democratic or Republican; there has been a continuation of many of Bush’s policies under Obama.
New Jersey has made great strides in gay rights but still has no legal gay marriage. How much are you planning to do in this area?
We are doing everything we can do, and [gay marriage] is, frankly, inevitable. The younger generation increasingly accepts lesbian and gay people without question. People will allow and accept gay marriage, and I look forward to that day.