ambiguity deprives a person of the notice
requirement of DUE PROCESS OF LAW, and, therefore,
renders the statute unconstitutional.
AMBIT
A boundary line that indicates ownership of a
parcel of land as opposed to other parcels; an
exterior or enclosing line. The limits of a power or
jurisdiction. The delineation of the scope of a
particular subject matter.
AMBULANCE CHASER
A colloquial phrase that is used derisively for a
person who is hired by an attorney to seek out
NEGLIGENCE cases at the scenes of accidents or in
hospitals where injured parties are treated, in
exchange for a percenta ge of the damages that will
be recovered in the case.
Also used to describe attorneys who, upon
learning of a personal injury that might have been
caused by the negligence or the wrongful act of
another, immediately contact the v ictim for consent to
represent h im or her in a lawsuit in exchange for a
contingent fee, a percentage of the judgment recovered.
AMBULATORY
Movable; revocable; subject to change; capable of
alteration.
An ambulatory court was the former name
of the Court of King’s Bench in England. It
would convene wherever the king who presided
over it could be found, moving its location as
the king moved.
An ambulatory disposition is a judgment,

JUSTICE
The American Association for Justice (AAJ)
(formerly the Association of Trial Lawyers of
America, or ATLA) is a
NONPROFIT organization
that represents the interests of
PERSONAL INJURY
attorneys. The AAJ is the world’slargesttrialbar
organization, with more t han 5 6,000 members
worldwide. AAJ’s goals are to safeguard the
interests of p eople who seek redress for injury
and to protect individuals from abuses of power.
Any person who is licensed to practice law in any
country, state, or jurisdiction, who is committed to
the
ADVERSARY SYSTEM, and who, for the most part,
does not represent the defense in personal injury
LITIGATION is eligible for membership. In 1946, a
group of plaintiffs’ attorneys involved in workers’
compensations litigation founded the National
Association of Claimants’
COMPENSATION Attorneys
(NCACCA). In 1972 NACCA b ecame ATLA, a nd
in 1977, the organization moved its headquarters
from Boston to Washington, D.C. The association
changed its name once again in 2006 to the AAJ.
AAJ comprises a network of U.S. and
Canadian affiliates involved in diverse areas of
trial advo cacy. It provides lawyers with the
information and professional assistance needed

federal legislative efforts to restrict the amount of
DAMAGES a PLAINTIFF can recover for MEDICAL
MALPRACTICE
or for injuries caused by a defective
product. Two major areas of litigation that
emerged during the early 200 0s were related to
asbestos and toxic mold. For many years, the
organization has lobbied against tort reform bills,
rebutting arguments that too many lawsuits have
led to excessive costs and delays and that juries
can no longer be trusted to render fair verdicts.
The election of
GEORGE W. BUSH as president in
2000 and the gain of Republican seats in
both the House and Senate in 2002 brought the
issue to the forefront. Although some commen-
tators expected a significant number of states to
approve tort reform measures, the proposals in
most of these states failed. As Democrats regained
control of Congress during the mid- to late-
2000s, focus on the tort reform issue became less
intense. Tort reform was not a major issue during
the presidential campaign of 2008.
In addition to its
LOBBYING efforts, AAJ
provides a special ization certification program
for trial skills and statistical compilation, as well
as a placement service. It al so conducts seminars
and conferences across the country.
During the 2000s, members of the ATLA

to anyone age 50 or older, working or retire d.
More than one-third of the association’s mem-
bership is in the workforce. The AARP head-
quarters are in Washington, D.C. By the early
2000s, AARP had fulfilled its goal of having
staffed offices in all 50 states, as well as the
District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S.
Virgin Islands. AARP has an extensive network of
local AARP chapters, its National Community
Service Programs and NTRA members to involve
members, volunteers, the media, community
partners, and policymakers in carrying out
its objectives. The organization is led by a
21-member
BOARD OF DIRECTORS and has an
administrative staff that carries out the group’s
day-to-day activities. The organization is funded
almost entirely by annual membership dues.
The AARP has been an effective advocate for
issues involving older persons, in part because
of its large membership and its ability to
mobilize its members to lobby for its positions
before Congress and government agencies. The
organization has concentrated much of its
LOBBYING effort on SOCIAL SECURITY, MEDICARE, and
long-term care issues. The AARP has fought
zealously to protect the Social Security benefits of
retired citizens and has resisted efforts by
Congress to change the system itself. Its Advocacy
Center for Social Security develop s policy

2008]).
The association also has been actively
involved in voter education. A major, nonparti-
san component of the association’s legislative
program is AARP/VOTE, a voter education
program designed to inform the public about
important
PUBLIC POLICY issues and the positions
of candidates for public office. Through issue
and candidate forums and voter guides, AARP/
VOTE works to promote issue-centered cam-
paigns and a more informed electorate.
The organization also provides many benefits
to its members. The AARP licenses the use of its
name for sele cted services of chosen providers.
For example, it offers members a choice of
insurance plans. Because most of the plans are
neither age-rated nor medically underwritten,
the association can make
HEALTH INSURANCE
available to many of its members who otherwise
would be unable to obtain coverage because of
pre-existing conditions. The association receives
an administrative allowance or a roya lty from the
providers and the income realized from these
services is used for the general purposes of the
association and its members.
AARP operates a nationwide volunteer net-
work that helps older citizens. Programs include
information and support for grandparents who

CROSS REFERENCES
Age Discrimination; Elder Law; Senior Citizens; Senior
Citizens: How to Avoid Being Defrauded; Senior Citizens
“Scamming the Elderly” (In Focus).
AMERICAN BANKERS ASSOCIATION
The American Bankers Association (ABA) is
composed of banks and other financial institu-
tions. It seeks to promote the strength and
profitability of the banking industry by
LOBBYING
federal and state governments, building industry
consensus on key issues, and providing products
and services, including public affairs support and
legal services, to its member banks. Membership
in the ABA includes community, regional, and
money-center banks (the nation’s major banks)
and holding companies, as well as savings
associations, trust companies , and savings banks.
The ABA, which was founded in 1875, is the
largest banking trade association in the United
States. The organization includes more than 95
percent of the commercial banking industry as
members. As of 2009 these members employ
more than two million people and have more
than $13 trillion in assets. The ABA’s headquar-
ters are in Washington, D.C.
GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION
260 AMERICAN BANKERS ASSOCIATION
The ABA places great emphasis on represent-
ing the interests of banks before Congress and

choice to keep the loan as part of its portfolio or to
sell the loan on the secondary mortgage market.
The ABA’s program became the most widely used
in the banking industry. By 2009, the total amount
of mortgages sold through this program surpassed
$100 billion. Several major banks and organiza-
tions are involved in this program, including the
Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation
(Freddie Mac) and
FEDERAL NATIONAL MORTGAGE
ASSOCIATION
(Fannie Mae).
The ABA operates the American Institute for
Banking (AIB), which is the largest provider of
banking education. The AIB teaches more than
100,000 students annually. In addition, the ABA
sponsors approximately 24 residential schools
with 3,700 students covering specialty areas within
banking and the prestigious Stonier Graduate
School of Banking. New technology has provided
new opportunities as well. American Financial
Skylink is a satellite
TELECOMMUNICATIONS network
that delivers news, information, and training
directly to banks through regular telecasts.
Other ABA affiliates include the following:
ABA eCom, which facilitates electronic banking
and
COMMERCE over the INTERNET; the ABA
Education Foundation, which provides resources

ed. St. Paul, MN: West Group.
AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION
The American Bar Association (ABA) is a
nationwide organiz ation to which qualified
attorneys voluntarily belong. With more than
413,000 members, the ABA is the largest volun-
tary professional organization in the world.
The ABA was founded in 1878 to improve
LEGAL EDUCATION, to set requirements to be
satisfied for admittance to the bar, and to
facilitate the exchange of ideas and information
among its members. Over the years, the ABA has
been largely responsible for the further develop-
ment of American jurisprudence; the establish-
ment of formal education requirements for
persons seeking to become attorneys; the formu-
lation of ethical principles that govern the
PRACTICE OF LAW; and the creation of the American
Law Institute (ALI) and the Conference of
Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, both of
which advance the fair administration of justice
through encouraging uniformity of statutes and
GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION
AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION 261
judicial decisions whenever practicable. For
several years, the ABA has been prominently
involved in the recommendation and selection of
candidates for the federal
JUDICIARY, the accredi-
tation of law schools, and the refinement of rules

and discipline, lawyer referral
services, and the
UNAUTHORIZED PRACTICE of law.
Other committees are concerned with topical
areas, such as prepaid legal services,
MALPRACTICE,
legal problems of the elderly, and public-interest
law. The ABA employs more than 750 profes-
sional staff members to assist committees,
sections, and individual members.
The ABA is involved in the political process
through its seven-person Governmental Affairs
Office (GAO), a
LOBBYING effort that serves as
the “eyes, ears and voice” of the organized bar at
the seat of the national government in
Washington, D.C. The GAO staff is housed
with about 170 other ABA staffers in the ABA’s
Washington, D.C. office. (The ABA’s main
offices are in Chicago, with more than 500 staff
members.) The lobbying group in Washington,
D.C., headed by the ABA ’s associate executive
director, testifies on Capitol Hill more of ten
than any other trade association. The ABA’s
lobbyists offer detailed information and analysis
on various technical issues, such as tax or
antitrust legislation. On issues such as
ABORTION,
which many ABA members and leaders consider
as having an

pro bono programs around the United States.
When it began, there were 66 organized projects
nationwide; by 1995 there were more than 950.
The ABA actively supports several major
legislative priorities on topics that have been in
the forefront of American political and govern-
mental affairs. The ABA has called for a
MORATORIUM on the death PENALTY until certain
procedures and policies are put into effect that
mandate fair and
IMPARTIAL administration of
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. The Death Penalty Morato-
rium Implementation Project had produced a
number of reports focusing on specific states,
including California, Maryland, New Jersey, and
Illinois. These reports typically demonstrate
flaws in capital punishment procedures used
in those states.
Since the
SEPTEMBER 11TH ATTACKS in 2001,
the ABA has stepped up its opposition to laws
GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION
262 AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION
requiring extra verification of citizenship for
immigrants. Additionally, the ABA has urged that
U.S. citizens and legal residents detained as
“enemy combatants” be afforded due process
rights and that military tribunals authorized to
conduct trials of suspected terrorists be used in
limited circumstances. The ABA has also an-

for all persons regardless of their econom-
ic or social condition
3. Provide ongoing leadership in improving
the law to serve the changing needs of
society
4. Increase public unders tanding of and
respect for the law, the legal process, and
theroleofthelegalprofession
5. Achieve the highest standards of profession-
alism, competence, and ethical conduct
6. Serve as the national representative of the
legal profession
7. Provide benefits, programs, and services
that promote professional growth and
enhance the quality of life of the members
8. Advance the rule of law in the world
9. Promote full and equal participation in the
legal profession by members of minorities
and women
10.Preserveandenhancetheidealsofthelegal
profession as a common calling and its
dedication to public service
11. Preserve the independence of the legal
profession and the judiciary as fundamen-
tal to a free society
FURTHER READINGS
ABA Standing Committee on the Judiciary. Available online
at />American Bar Association Website. Available online at http://
www.abanet.org/home.html (accessed May 11, 2009).
Hobson, Wayne K. 1986. The American Legal Profession and the

entious objectors, and deporting thousands of
immigrants. One group in particular stood up to
him: the American Union against Militarism
(AUAM), led by social reformers and radicals.
Among its founder s was the pacifist
ROGER
BALDWIN
, a former sociology teacher. In 1917, as
the United Stat es prepared to enter the war,
Baldwin gave the group a broader mission by
transforming it into the Civil Liberties Bureau,
dedicated to the defense of those the government
saw fit to crush and corral. Anti-Communist
hysteria worsened the civil liberties picture
GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION
AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION 263
between 1919 and 1920, and the upstart bureau
had its hands full as Palmer, and his assist ant,
J. EDGAR HOOVER, staged massive police raids that
netted thousands of alleged subversives at a time.
In 1920 the Civil Liberties Bureau became
the ACLU. Joining Baldwin in launching the
new organization were several distinguished
social leaders, including the author Helen
A. Keller, the attorney and future Supreme
Court Justice
FELIX FRANKFURTER, and the socialist
clergyman Norman Thomas. The ACLU quickly
joined the U.S. Congress and the
AMERICAN BAR

KU KLUX KLAN to hold meetings in Boston,
despite the orders of a Catholic mayor; of
Catholic teachers to teach in the schools of
Akron, despite the opposition of the Ku Klux
Klan; and of Communists to exhibit their
film, “The Fifth Year,” in Providence, despite
the opposition of both the Catholics and the
Ku Klux Klan.
Consequently, while carving out a unique
place for the ACLU in U.S. law, these defenses
also won the organization enemies.
Within a few years, the ACLU was widely
known. Its first victory before the Supreme Court
came in the landmark 1925 case Gitlow v. New
York (268 U.S. 652, 45 S. Ct. 625, 69 L. Ed. 1138),
in which the Court threw out the defendant’s
CONVICTION under New York’s “criminal anar-
chy” statute (N.Y. Penal Law §§ 160, 161, Laws
1909, ch. 88; Consol. Laws 1909, ch. 40), for
advocating the overthrow of the U.S. government
in a printed flyer. Gitlow established that the
FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT, which applies to the
states, includes
FREEDOM OF SPEECH in its liberty
guarantee. By 1926 the ACLU was involved in
the debate over church-state separation. It joined
the so-called
SCOPES MONKEY TRIAL, arguing against
a Tennessee law that forbade teaching the theory
of evolution in public schools (Scopes v. State, 152

and Miss McClosky.
BETTMANN/CORBIS.
GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3
RD E DITION
264 AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION
(through amicus briefs) several Supreme Court
cases that profoundly changed U.S. law and life.
Among these were
BROWN V. BOARD OF EDUCATION
(347 U.S. 483, 74 S. Ct. 686, 98 L. Ed. 873 [1954 ])
(declaring racially segregated schools unconsti-
tutional);
MAPP V. OHIO (367 U.S. 643, 81 S. Ct.
1684, 6 L. Ed. 2d 1081 [1961]) (severely limiting
the power of police officers and prosecutors to
use illegally obtained evidence);
GRISWOLD V.
CONNECTICUT (381 U.S. 479, 85 S. Ct. 1678, 14 L.
Ed. 2d 510 [1965]) (invalidating a state law that
banned contraceptives and, for the first time,
recognizing the concept of privacy in the
BILL OF
RIGHTS
); MIRANDA V. ARIZONA (384U.S. 436, 86 S. Ct.
1602, 16 L. Ed. 2d 694 [1966]) (requiring the
police to advise suspects of their rights before
interrogation); Loving v. Virginia (388 U.S. 1, 87
S. Ct. 1817, 18 L. Ed. 2d 1010 [1967]) (striking
down the laws of Virginia and 15 other states that
made interracial

1990s, it did not avoid cases even w hen taking
them on meant clashing with such traditional
allies as femi nists and university professors over
its support of the freedom to publish
PORNOGRA-
PHY
and opposition to campus speech codes.
The ACLU is often called the nation’s
foremost advocate of individual rights. With
dozens of Supreme Court cases and thousands
of state and federal rulings behind it, the
organization is a firmly established force in
U.S. law. Its reach goes beyond the courts.
Watchful of lawmakers, it frequently issues
public statements on pending national, state,
and local legislation, campaigning for and
against laws. It also pursues special projects on
women’s rights, reproductive freedom, chil-
dren’srights,
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT, prisoners’
rights, national security, and civil liberties. In
these areas, its goal is both to defend existing
liberties and to expand them into quarters
where they are not generally enjoyed.
The election of
GEORGE W. BUSH as president
in 2000 and the gain of Republican seats in both
the House and Senate in 2002 gave increased
urgency to the ACLU advocacy for civil liberties.
In addition to supporting the right to partial-

for the presidency, and with his election, Demo-
crats gained control of both houses of Congress
as well as the White House. In 2009, the ACLU
continued to advocate its agenda; for instance,
the ACLU in March 2009 submitted a letter to
Obama asking him to withhold support for
funding for programs the support abstinence until
marriage. According to the ACLU, the money
going toward those programs should be devoted
to teen education about safer sex practices.
GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION
AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION 265
Whose Civil Liberties, Anyway?
The ACLU and Its Critics
S
ince 1920 the American Civil
Liberties Union (ACLU) has stood
at the forefront of nearly every great legal
battle over personal freedom in the
United States. The C in ACLU might
easily stand for Controversial. Although
the ACLU’s role as a major institution
in U.S. law is indisputable, its effect on
the law and on the lives of citizens is
frequently in dispute. Political debate
over the group yields very little middle
ground and a great amo unt of passionate
disagreement. Supporters agree w ith its
self-styled epithet, “the guardian of liberty.”
To them, the ACLU is often all that stands

attacking the ACLU as “the criminal’s
lobby.” Other critics said the ACLU was
anti-God, anti-American, anti-life, and so
on. In the end, no jails held ACLU
members (at least not for long), but no
small number of people would have liked
to lock them away.
The case against the ACLU is actually
many cases. Every time the organization
goes into court, it naturally has to
displease someone;
LITIGATION is hardly
about making friends. Although the
organization has one mandate, the ab-
stract ideal of freedom, it must oppose
the will of specific individuals if this
mandate is to be carried out. Take, for
example, one of the ACLU’s civil liberties
battles: religious freedom. For some,
religious freedom means the First
Amendment’s guarantee that “Congress
shall make no law respecting an establish-
ment of religion”; in other words, that
people will be free from government-
imposed religious worship. For many
others, religious freedom implies just the
opposite
FIRST AMENDMENT assurance, that
Congress shall not prohibit the free
exercise of

religious symbols.” Leo’s point is shared
by many conservatives: The government,
far from remaining neutral in religious
matters, is actually engaging in hostility
toward religion, at the behest of ACLU
“zealots.” In this view, the defense of an
abstract principle has taken hold of the
senses of its defenders; they have become
inflexible absolutists. The conservative
attorney and author Bruce Fein took this
complaint much further, discovering
something insidious: “A partial sketch
of the ACLU’s vision of America reveals a
contempt for individual responsibility,
economic justice and prosperity and
moral decency.” Fein meant that the
ACLU defends welfare.
Ascribing suspicious aims to the
ACLU moves the debate into a more
complicated area. The ACLU is not
opposed simply because it has fought to
block government-sanctioned religious
displays, causing local upset and anger.
Similarly, it is not opposed merely
because it defends the rights of some of
society’s most unpopular groups, Nazis,
for example. The deeper issue is civil
liberties themselves. Here people face a
new question: Why does an organization
that fights for the very foundations of the

blacks. And just because there are
more heterosexuals than homo-
sexuals should not mean that the
majority can discriminate with
impunity against the minority.
But civil liberties “are not self-enforcing,”
Siegel adds. Moreover,
NADINE STROSSEN,
former ACLU president, points out that
victories in civil liberties need to be
continually re-won. It is not the habit of
enemies to grant their opponents the same
constitutional rights that they themselves
enjoy; plainly, it is the habit of enemies to
ignore, restrict, or even crush those rights.
Not by accident, the government or a
majority of voters can do this; the weak
and the few cannot. Thus, the ACLU’s
commitment is precisely to those whose
purchase on freedom is slim—not because
the ACLU is necessarily in favor of their
cause, but because it is in favor of
upholding their rights.
That argument sounds nice on paper,
opponents say, but it is neither practical
nor sensible at all times in real life. Indeed,
they ask, what about the majority—why
must it suffer to please the few in its midst
who cause trouble, such as criminals? This
is the point that Bush wanted to make with

speech codes that colleges and universi-
ties have imposed on campuses to
protect members of minorities from
others’ abusive expression. Such issues
have caused
DISSENT even among the
ranks of the ACLU itself, leading some
to argue that the organization should
emphasize
CIVIL RIGHTS over civil liberties,
that is, jettison its traditional mission in
order to focus more specifically on the
rights of women and racial minorities. In
the ACLU’s annual report (1992–1993),
Strossen dismissed this argument. Liber-
ty and equality, she wrote, are not
mutually exclusive. “How can individual
liberty be secure if some individuals
are denied their rights because they
belong to certain societal groups? How,
on the other hand, can equality for all
groups be secure if that equality does
not include the exercise of individual
liberty?”
Critics contend, however, that mak-
ing individual rights paramount can
produce results that clash with commu-
nity values. They note that the ACLU has
fought the implementation of the Chil-
dren’s Internet Protection Act, including

powers. It lobbied again when the act was
reauthorized in 2006, and in 2009 advo-
cated that three provisions of the law be
allowed to sunset at the end of the year.
It has challenged the indefinite
DETENTION
of ALIENS who are suspected of terrorist
activities and ties, and questioned the
invasion of email and phone traffic by
federal agencies tasked with fighting
TERRORISM.
The ACLU promises to remain on
the forefront of the debate over the
scope of the Bill of Rights and the desire
of citizens to be protected by their
government. The
WAR ON TERRORISM that
began in September 2001 has generated
many legal challenges by the ACLU as the
federal government asserted new-found
powers to monitor, investigate, and
detain suspected terrorists. The ACLU
will continue to find itself isolated at
times as it battles for its vision of a free
society.
FURTHER READINGS
American Civil Liberties Union. Available
online at www.aclu.org (accessed July
11, 2003).
Hershkoff, Helen. 1997. The Rights of the Poor: