American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia records, 1954/1984, bulk 1967/1984

Access and use

Location of collection:
University of Virginia, Special Collections Dept.
Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library
University of Virginia
P.O. Box 400110
170 McCormick Rd
Charlottesville, Virginia 22904-4110
Contact for questions and access:
POC: Special Collections Public Services & Reference Staff
Phone: (434) 243-1776
Fax: (434) 924-4968
Restrictions:

to many of the materials in the ACLU of Virginia papers is restricted. Some documents are open to researchers, but most are either closed by law or require special permissions from the ACLU of Virginia. The restrictions that govern this collection are described below. They ensure the Law Library's compliance with applicable laws and institutional policies as well as the conditions of the ACLU's donation of these records to the University of Virginia.

Open to Researchers:

Researchers may view public documents in the collection without additional permissions. These include public court records, such as briefs, transcripts, and judgments. They also include press releases and media coverage of cases. Any public documents marked with attorney notes may be considered work-product privileged records and they are restricted.

Closed to Researchers:

1. Attorney-Client Privileged Records: Any item documenting communications between an attorney and a client or potential client. This includes but is not limited to written correspondence, memoranda to the file, notes, or any report of communication to or from a client or potential client. These records may be opened to researchers if the client or the client's legal representative waives the privilege in writing, and the ACLU of Virginia approves the release.

2. Classified Documents: These materials will remain closed until they are declassified. After which time, access may need to be approved by the ACLU of Virginia.

3. Documents Placed Under Seal of Court or Protective Order: These materials will remain closed until they are unsealed and/or the protective order is modified. After which time, access may need to be approved by the ACLU of Virginia.

4. Documents Identifying Anonymous Clients: Any documents identifying an anonymous or pseudonymous client will remain closed unless the client or the client's legal representative approves opening them in writing. After client approval, the ACLU of Virginia must also approve access.

5. Terms of a Confidential Settlement: Materials documenting terms of a confidential settlement will remain closed unless the parties involved waive their privilege to confidentiality in writing.

6. Personnel Records: Records which deal with personnel issues, whether in personnel files or in other files maintained by the ACLU of Virginia, shall be closed until 75 years after their creation. When scattered personnel records are present in open files, they shall be governed by this paragraph. This restriction shall not apply if the person or persons to whom the record applies have given their permission in writing to disclose said information. Also, the ACLU of Virginia must approve the release of the records.

7. Personally Identifiable Information Not Revealed in Public Court Documents: Records containing personally identifiable information not revealed in public court documents will be closed for seventy-five years (100 years if the information pertains to children). After that time, the ACLU of Virginia must also approve access to the documents.

Access Requires ACLU-VA Approval:

Some materials in this collection may be released to researchers with the ACLU of Virginia's approval. To access these materials, researchers must submit a written request to the University of Virginia Law Library. The request must include the researcher's name, the reason for the request, and a list of the requested materials. The University of Virginia Law Library will forward written requests to the ACLU of Virginia. The Library will inform researchers when the ACLU of Virginia has either approved or denied their requests.

Here is a list of materials that may be released with the approval of the ACLU of Virginia:

1. Administrative Records of the ACLU-VA: These records document the ACLU-VA's operations and were maintained by its staff. These include, but are not limited to, reports, meeting minutes, agendas, memoranda, staff directories, topical files, project files, and other materials that do not contain information strictly closed to researchers (e.g., personnel records). These records are strictly closed for 20 years after creation or 10 years after their deposit in the UVA Law Library, whichever is later, but in no case for more than 30 years after the creation of the record. After these times, records may be released with the ACLU of Virginia's approval.

2. Work-Product Privileged Records: These records, most often found in case files, include correspondence, memoranda, drafts of briefs, written statements of witnesses, notes of mental impressions, personal recollections, and other materials prepared or created by ACLU attorneys while working on a case. These records are strictly closed for 20 years after the closure of the associated case or cases. After that time, they may be released with the ACLU-VA's approval. Any materials documenting communications with clients or potential clients remain protected by attorney-client privilege when mixed with work-product privileged records.

Terms of access:

Because of the nature of this collection, copyright status varies across the materials. Copyright is assumed to be held by the original creators of the content.

Summary

Extent:
120 Cubic Feet 254 archival boxes
Creator:
American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia
Language:
English

Background

Scope and content:

This collection documents the work of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Virginia between 1967 and 1984. The subjects of this collection reflect the organization's mission and priorities during that period. They relate to a wide range of issues including academic freedom; due process; the rights of children and students; racial and sexual discrimination; the military draft; religion in public schools; the rights of women; the rights of prisoners; state reapportionment; the rights of the mentally disabled; and the rights of migrant workers.

ACLU of Virginia staff members created and maintained the records in this collection, which include meeting minutes, correspondence, personnel records, reports, press releases, broadsides, memoranda, case files, project files, and topical files.

Biographical / historical:

The ACLU of Virginia was begun in 1967, and by early 1968 had 1700 members. In that year, the National Development Council of the ACLU approved a grant proposal from the Virginia affiliate for funds to hire permanent staff. Between 1967 and 1985, the executive directorship had been held consecutively by Lauren Selden, Shalom Dubow, Betsy Brinson, and Chan Kendrick.

During the period documented in this collection, the ACLU of Virginia supported the rights of children, the intellectually disabled, students, women, homosexuals, and racial minorities. It funded projects to effect improvements in the treatment and living conditions of patients in the state's mental institutions, and migrant farmworkers on the Eastern Shore. It opposed religion in public schools, illegal police searches, and the imposition of dress or hair length codes in schools or the work place. In the General Assembly, the Virginia affiliate fought for the Equal Rights Amendment, the right to abortion, reapportionment, and certain court reforms and changes in the juvenile code. The organization was an active advocate for academic freedom and for the protection of individuals' privacy. It pushed for reform of drug laws and called for the end of capital punishment. The most extensive and visible project for Virginia's ACLU in the 1970's and early 1980's was the prison project. The prison project was a movement to insure adequate legal protection of inmates, as well as to improve their living conditions and treatment.

Acquisition information:
In 1985, the executive director of the ACLU of Virginia, Chan Kendrick, approved the transfer of the existing ACLU collection from the University of Virginia's Alderman Library to the Arthur J. Morris Law Library. Then in 1986, the ACLU transferred additional materials directly to the Law Library.
Custodial history:

In nine installments, between 1971 and 1985, the ACLU of Virginia transferred much of this collection to the University of Virginia's Alderman Library. The initial installment was accessioned as #9690, and succeeding ones were numbered #9690-a, -b, etc.

Arrangement:

The collection is generally arranged into series and subseries according to the date of accession at the University of Virginia.

The first series contains materials that the ACLU-VA transferred to Alderman Library in nine installments. In 1988, archivists separated some of these materials into a tenth "restricted" subseries. The second series contains materials that the ACLU-VA directly transferred to the Arthur J. Morris Law Library.

The arrangement of items and files in the series and sub-series generally corresponds to their original order at the ACLU of Virginia's offices.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard