Jessica Farris is Policy and Advocacy Counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, where she works on areas such as privacy/surveillance and criminal justice reform.  She graduated from Muhlenberg College (Pennsylvania), has a Masters degree from University College Dublin, and graduated from Drexel Law School.  She has previously done pro bono legal work for Innocence Matters, for the Philadelphia Senior Law Center, and for the Drexel Haiti Justice Project for the Haitian population infected with cholera by UN forces stationed there after the major earthquake.
 
 
The national ACLU was founded in 1920 to preserve the rights guaranteed by the Bill of Rights.  In 1923, the Los Angeles Police Department banned striking San Pedro longshoremen from holding public meetings.  At a rally protesting the ban, author Upton Sinclair and 5 friends tried to read aloud the First Amendment in support of the workers’ rights to free speech and assembly.  The police chief warned them to “cut out that Constitution stuff,” and they were arrested and charged with criminal syndicalism, or agitating to overthrow the government.  After the San Pedro strike, Sinclair, a member of the newly-founded national ACLU in New York, helped to form the first ACLU affiliate in Los Angeles, which took an early stand against worker exploitation.  (The Bureau of Investigation, the precursor to the FBI, investigated the ACLU of Southern California and tried to obtain its membership list.)
 
The government of the United States is built on two basic principles: (1) majority rule through democratic elections, and (2) protection of individual liberties and rights from attack by the majority.  The Constitution and Bill of Rights set the ground rules for individual liberty, including the freedoms of speech, association and religion, freedom of the press, and the right to privacy, to equal protection of the laws and to due process of law.  The ACLU, by public education, lobbying, and litigation, promotes full protections of the Bill of Rights to all, including women, immigrants, the poor, racial and religious minorities, LGBT people, people with disabilities, the homeless, prisoners, and children in the custody of the state.  It opposes government corruption and abuse of power, and educates and empowers individuals about their rights.  It may advocate for or against certain rights-related federal, state, and local measures.
 
The ACLU is not affiliated with any political party.  There are civil libertarians in both major parties, and the Board of Directors includes members of both parties.  Defending constitutional issues is often confused with defending unpopular political positions, such as the so-called “War on Christmas” to oppose government promotion of a holiday of the majority religion.  The ACLU defends religious expression, but the government of all of us cannot embrace one religion or ostracize others.  Religious exercise should be free from government interference.  Jessica Farris trusts the processes of the US legal system to defend individual liberties.