First Amendment Coalition Competitors

Leading public health through education, advocacy and research in the nation's capital, both today and for generations to come.

The ACLU is an non-profit, non-partisan organization of people who believe in the power of action. We are united by the quest – “We the people dare to create a more perfect union.” Whether in the courts, statehouses, Congress or communities, we fight to defend the rights that the Constitution guarantees to all of us —regardless of who we are, where we come from, whom we love, or what we believe. Together, we take up the toughest civil rights and liberties challenges of our time. We seek to inspire those who want change to become the ones who make change.

PEN America stands at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect open expression in the United States and worldwide. We champion the freedom to write, recognizing the power of the word to transform the world. Our mission is to unite writers and their allies to celebrate creative expression and defend the liberties that make it possible. PEN America is the largest of more than 100 centers of PEN International. For more than 90 years, we have been working together with our colleagues in the international PEN community to ensure that people everywhere have the freedom to create literature, to convey information and ideas, to express their views, and to make it possible for everyone to access the views, ideas, and literatures of others. In doing so, we are building on a tradition begun in the years following World War I and carried forward by thousands of American writers. Our strength is our membership—a nationwide community of novelists, journalists, editors, poets, essayists, playwrights, publishers, translators, agents, and other professionals, and an even larger network of devoted readers and supporters who join with them to carry out PEN America's mission.