American Constitutional Rights Union

The organization now publishes under the name American Constitutional Rights Union; it was previously the American Civil Rights Union, which is the name this entry was created under. It states that it is “an IRS-recognized non-partisan 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization” and “receives no federal grants or funding.” Its IRS record (EIN 52-2121856) carries a June 1999 ruling date and a Naples, Florida address; for the 2022 tax year it reported total revenue of $1.41 million and total assets of$0.96 million. A separate 501(c)(4), the American Constitutional Rights Union Action Fund (EIN 45-4293653, ruling July 2012), files at the same address.

Stated mission

The ACRU states that it “empowers Americans to ‘Live Free’ by protecting our God-given rights as outlined in the U.S. Constitution,” and affirms that “the judiciary’s purpose is to interpret the U.S. Constitution as written, not to make selective interpretations, nor to legislate.”

Founder

Robert B. Carleson founded the organization. Its own biography records that he reformed the California welfare system in the early 1970s under Governor Ronald Reagan and was later “instrumental in designing the 1996 welfare reform.”

Work

The organization publishes its issue areas as the First and Second Amendments, religious liberty, freedom of speech and assembly, immigration enforcement, the Electoral College, federalism, “fairness in elections” and the courts. Its published legal work is organised as amicus briefs, legislative testimony and litigation, with named county-level cases in Florida, Mississippi and Texas — the pattern of an organization that litigates election administration at the county level rather than campaigning nationally.