Name: Juno Walker

Social Justice Group: 2018-2019, Freedom of the Press

Date of Fieldwork: December 19, 2018

Name of Organization: ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union)

Person (people) with whom I met and their job titles: Chris Ott

Type of Fieldwork: Interview

What I did:

For this fieldwork, we met with Chris Ott, a lawyer for the ACLU based in Wisconsin. We asked him about past cases and his thoughts on them, and how he thinks the country can improve the current state of the First Amendment.

What I learned:

I learned a lot about how the ACLU was founded, and other cases they’ve worked on. They were originally founded by a group of people who were against unfair taxes in the US. They’ve since expanded across the country and they’ve worked on many big cases in the past including Brown vs. Board of Education where the ACLU fought alongside the NAACP in an effort to ban segregation in public schools. I learned that they fight strictly for the First Amendment and they have to follow the Amendment word for word.

What I learned about Social Justice “work” and/or Civil and Human rights “work” from this fieldwork:

I learned that the ACLU protects everyone equally no matter what. They will fight for anyone that has their rights of the First Amendment taken away and they have to follow the First Amendment without any personal opinions getting involved in order to maintain a persistent precedent for future cases.