ACLU Supporter, as you read this, freedom of speech and the right to protest are under active, vicious attack.

Police are violently arresting anti-war protesters on college campuses and chilling students' free speech and free expression. We're also seeing anti-democratic politicians take advantage of this tense moment to push legislation that would stifle dissent and silence students, faculty, and advocacy groups alike. It's chilling to witness.

The ACLU helped enshrine the right to protest as a central pillar of the First Amendment. We have defended those principles for more than a century – and in this watershed moment for our First Amendment rights, we need your help.

On the ACLU's first-ever Giving Day, we are counting on people like you to make their first gift to help us protect free speech when it's needed most. Please make a Giving Day gift of $35 or whatever you can afford right now, and – thanks to matching funds from a generous donor – it will be DOUBLED to defend the rights of all people nationwide.

Let us be abundantly clear, ACLU Supporter: Free speech cannot be sacrificed as a response to student activism.

Yet across the country, schools are inviting police onto campuses to arrest students, changing policies to stifle peaceful protests, and escalating tensions, rather than protecting student activism, free expression, and peaceful dissent.

We've fought for free speech and the right to protest for over 100 years – and we won't stop now.

When Indiana University banned student and faculty protesters from their campus, keeping them from rejoining future protests, our affiliate, the ACLU of Indiana, fought back – suing on behalf of banned protesters to protect their constitutional rights. We're ready to take on these legal battles and more, but we need you with us.

These are the kinds of fights we must take on. But as armed police attack and intimidate protesters, as students and faculty are banned from from campus altogether, we are counting on ACLU supporters – including you, ACLU Supporter – to take action by the thousands to ensure we can protect freedom of speech.

We set a goal to raise $100,000 on our first-ever Giving Day to help protect free speech, and we need your gift of $35 to get us there. Please donate before midnight and your gift will be DOUBLED to help fund all the ACLU's important work.

Thank you,

Emerson Sykes
Pronouns: He, him, his
Senior Staff Attorney, ACLU Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project