Civil Liberties Organizations, Advocacy, Information, and Tools

The rights we are guaranteed in the Constitution and in federal law are sometimes very well-known, and sometimes a little more obscure. Some of them are explicitly guaranteed in the Bill of Rights, such as the right to free speech or the right to keep and bear arms, while others have been inferred from the Constitution and made real by court decisions or acts of law, such as the right to privacy.

  

Some of the essential civil liberties guaranteed in the United States are, in no particular order:

• Right to privacy
• Right to a jury trial
• Right to freedom of religion
• Right to travel freely
• Right to freedom of speech
• Right to be free from self-incrimination
• Right to bear arms
• Right to marry
• Right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures of your property
• Right to freedom of the press
• Right to be free from cruel and unusual punishments
• Right to legal counsel
• Right to assemble peacefully
• Right to vote

But understanding our rights and freedoms is not always easy. And what happens when the exercise of your rights infringes upon the rights of your neighbor? Is one right more important than another? You have the right to free speech. But, does this mean you have the right to yell at your neighbor's house through a bullhorn at three in the morning? You have the right to legal counsel. But, what if you can't afford a lawyer? Should the state have to provide a lawyer for you?

The following organizations and tools can help you understand your rights and freedoms, and can help you retain and defend those rights when needed.

• Access Now - https://www.accessnow.org
• American Civil Liberties Union - https://www.aclu.org
• American Civil Rights Union - http://www.theacru.org
• American Library Association (Privacy) - http://www.ala.org/advocacy/privacy
• Autistici / Inventati - https://www.autistici.org/
• Big Brother Watch - https://bigbrotherwatch.org.uk
• Cato Institute - https://www.cato.org/
• Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) - https://cdt.org/about/
• Center for Digital Democracy - https://www.democraticmedia.org
• Chaos Computer Club - https://www.ccc.de/en/
• Civil Liberties Defense Center - https://cldc.org
• Disroot - https://disroot.org/en
• Drug Policy Alliance - http://www.drugpolicy.org 
• Electronic Privacy Information Center - https://epic.org
• Electronic Frontier Foundation - https://www.eff.org/
• Flex Your Rights - https://www.flexyourrights.org
• Freedom of the Press Foundation - https://freedom.press/
• Frontline Defenders - https://www.frontlinedefenders.org
• Fully Informed Jury Association - http://fija.org 
• Gun Owners of America - https://gunowners.org/ 
• Institute for Justice - http://ij.org 
• Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership - http://jpfo.org
• Lucy Parsons Labs - https://lucyparsonslabs.com/
• National Lawyers Guild - https://www.nlg.org/
• National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action - https://www.nraila.org/
• Oath Keepers - https://www.oathkeepers.org
• Prager University - https://www.prageru.com
• Privacy International - https://privacyinternational.org
• Privacy Rights Clearinghouse - https://www.privacyrights.org
• Privacy Tools - https://www.privacytools.io
• RiseUp - https://riseup.net
• Seattle Privacy Coalition - https://seattleprivacy.org/
• Tactical Technology Collective - https://tacticaltech.org
• TOR Project - https://www.torproject.org

You may not agree with the stand of every one of these groups, and they may even disagree with each other. Sometimes individual rights and personal freedoms become hot button topics resulting in clashes between otherwise well-meaning individuals. But what is important to recognize is that the infringement of any one of our fundamental rights weakens all of our rights and freedoms.