SUBJECT-1004.dossier · institution · status: active
A(
subject of file

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)

Civil liberties organization; major OSF grantee
Tracked because Civil liberties organization; major OSF grantee · 30 documented connections
Editorial summary · AI-drafted from public records

National civil liberties organization. Received $50M grant from Open Society Foundations in 2014 — one of the largest single grants in OSF history — specifically for immigrant rights litigation. Annual budget ~$300M. Has litigated against Palantir-powered ICE operations. The ACLU-OSF-ICE triangle is a direct point where the Soros and Thiel network analyses intersect.

Facts on record3
Connections mapped30
Sources cited8
✦ Thin coverage gap +122 connected to 30 entities · only 3 facts on record · flagged for follow-up research
Evidence: 3P
Network web → Timeline → Compare with… → Position Drift → Coverage tone → View on Graph → View Card → Export CSV JSON Dossier ← Entity Directory
Stated vs Revealed
No documented contradictions on file.
[PUBLIC COST ESTIMATE]
Documented financial relationships span 0 money flow chains, while 10 elected officials hold documented connections.
0Money Chains
0Traced Hops
Connected Officials
Calculation Methodology

Contract values are summed from documented money flow chains where this entity appears as a source or destination node. Amounts are drawn from USASpending.gov, FEC filings, SEC EDGAR, or LD-2 lobbying registrations.

Donor contributions aggregate documented amounts from the donor_interests table, sourced from FEC individual and PAC contribution filings.

Connected officials are elected officials in our database with a mapped relationship (lobbying, board membership, campaign contribution, etc.) to this entity.

Annualised flow represents the total documented dollar amount traced through money flow hops involving this entity. Where hop-level amounts are unavailable, the chain-level documented total is used as a conservative upper bound.

All figures are drawn from public filings. Estimates are conservative — undisclosed transactions, dark money, and vanish-point hops are excluded from totals. This is a minimum documented floor, not a ceiling.

PATTERN organization → [donor] → person → [affiliation] → institu... 2321× PATTERN organization → [donor] → person → [policy opposition] → i... 307× PATTERN organization → [donor] → person → [legislative scorecard ... 173× PATTERN institution → [legislative scorecard rating] → person → [... 173× PATTERN organization → [donor] → person → [Opposition Stance] → i... 171×
Connection Map
Key Connections
← Academi (formerly Blackwater) company
Investigative Oversight
The ACLU obtained FOIA disclosures showing that the State Department paid millions in legal fees to Blackwater's defense counsel under indemnification clauses.
← Derek Schmidt person
adversarial
As Kansas Attorney General, Schmidt defended the state's documentary proof-of-citizenship voter law through multiple appeals; the state ultimately paid $1.9 million in legal fees to the ACLU after federal courts ruled the law unconstitutional.
← Vicente Gonzalez person
legislative_scorecard_rating
ACLU gave Gonzalez a 100% rating on its most recent legislative scorecard (2021), noting 9 out of 9 votes matched ACLU positions.
← Joaquin Castro person
Organizational score/rating
Castro has maintained a 100% lifetime score from the ACLU on LGBTQ+ issues, indicating his voting record aligns with ACLU positions.
← ImmigrationOS instrument
oversight
Civil liberties organizations including the ACLU and Electronic Frontier Foundation have filed FOIA requests seeking documentation about ImmigrationOS capabilities and data sharing practices.
← Doris O. Matsui person
policy opposition
ACLU warned that H.R. 6090 (Antisemitism Awareness Act), which Matsui voted for, threatens First Amendment speech protections.
← Ed Case person
affiliation
Case cited free speech concerns aligning with ACLU warnings when voting against H.R. 6090 (Antisemitism Awareness Act).
← George Whitesides person
Policy opposition
The ACLU harshly criticized Whitesides' vote in favor of the Laken Riley Act (H.R. 29) requiring mandatory detention of undocumented immigrants for theft-related offenses.
Facts (3)
Data Freshness
Ageing Last update: 161d ago · Avg age: 781d
Confidence Tiers: Primary Source — cross-referenced government/corporate filings Pending Review — sourced but not independently verified AI Inference — analytical hypothesis from cross-referencing
✓ Verified Findings (3)
Independently re-checked: a second model read the source artifact and confirmed it supports the extracted claim.
✓ verified Primary Source The ACLU joined the #NoTechforICE campaign calling on companies like Palantir, Amazon and Microsoft to stop selling tools to ICE and CBP
Date: 2023-02-27 Added: 13 Apr 2026 ↗ SOURCE: ACLU press release
✓ verified Primary Source ACLU filed multiple lawsuits against ICE seeking records on deportation infrastructure expansion plans
Date: 2024-01-01 Added: 13 Apr 2026 ↗ SOURCE: ACLU press releases and court documents
✓ verified Primary Source The Open Society Foundations awarded the ACLU $50 million on November 7, 2014, the largest grant in ACLU history, to reduce mass incarceration
All Connections (30)
→ Palantir Technologies company
legal confirmed
ACLU criticizes and litigates against Palantir's ICE contracts
legal primary since unknown
ACLU filed multiple lawsuits against ICE seeking records on deportation infrastructure expansion plans
campaign target primary since unknown
ACLU joined #NoTechforICE campaign calling on companies to stop selling tools to CBP
→ Microsoft company
campaign target primary since unknown
ACLU joined #NoTechforICE campaign calling on Microsoft to stop selling tools to ICE and CBP
← George Soros person
funded confirmed
Open Society Foundations provided $50 million grant for mass incarceration campaign
← U.S. Civil Rights Commission (USCCR) government agency
civil_rights_advocacy secondary since 1970
Both organizations focus on protecting civil rights and civil liberties, often collaborating on issues of government surveillance and discrimination
← George Whitesides person
Policy opposition primary since 2025
The ACLU harshly criticized Whitesides' vote in favor of the Laken Riley Act (H.R. 29) requiring mandatory detention of undocumented immigrants for theft-related offenses.
← Derek Schmidt person
adversarial primary since 2020
As Kansas Attorney General, Schmidt defended the state's documentary proof-of-citizenship voter law through multiple appeals; the state ultimately paid $1.9 million in legal fees to the ACLU after federal courts ruled the law unconstitutional.
← Vicente Gonzalez person
legislative_scorecard_rating primary since 2021
ACLU gave Gonzalez a 100% rating on its most recent legislative scorecard (2021), noting 9 out of 9 votes matched ACLU positions.
← Doris O. Matsui person
policy opposition primary since 2024
ACLU warned that H.R. 6090 (Antisemitism Awareness Act), which Matsui voted for, threatens First Amendment speech protections.
policy_coalition_partner secondary since 2005
Both appear sequentially in the known entities list and frequently collaborate on civil liberties and immigration policy advocacy.
legal_adversary secondary since 2013
ACLU has litigated against NYPD over surveillance programs, stop-and-frisk policies, and data retention practices.
← Democracy Alliance institution
grant recipient inferential since 2017
Democracy Alliance is a major funding network; ACLU is a known grant recipient of the Democracy Alliance donor network.
← Quantum Fund instrument
funded organization secondary since 1995
The ACLU has received significant funding from Open Society Foundations and other Soros-linked philanthropies funded by Quantum Fund profits.
← Mark Rumold person
affiliation inferential since 2026
Mark Rumold and the ACLU both appear in the known entities database, with Rumold known as a senior staff attorney at the ACLU, making this a direct professional relationship. However, given the data is untrusted, the connection is marked as inferential based on the known entities list placement.
← New Venture Fund institution
grant recipient inferential since 2017
New Venture Fund has funded the ACLU for litigation and advocacy on civil liberties issues.
← Chris Pappas person
Opposition Stance secondary since 2025
The ACLU condemned the Laken Riley Act, which Pappas voted for, as undermining due process.
← Arabella Advisors company
affiliation inferential since 2020
Arabella Advisors and ACLU are both part of the 'Arabella network' of left-leaning nonprofit organizations.
← Marcia Hofmann person
affiliation / collaboration secondary since 2012
Marcia Hofmann has collaborated with or worked alongside ACLU attorneys on digital privacy and free speech cases, and is listed as a cooperating attorney in some matters.
← Lloyd Doggett person
alignment inferential since 2025
Doggett voted against mandatory ICE detention for undocumented immigrants, aligning with progressive activist groups and immigrant communities in his district.
← Clearview AI company
legal inferential since 2022
Clearview AI's cluster of three SEC filings in September 2022 (September 1, 15, and 22) coincides with the company's post-ACLU settlement period, suggesting capital restructuring or new investment rounds tied to expanding government contract capacity.
← Chuck Schumer elected official
policy_ally inferential since 2025
Schumer's vote against the Laken Riley Act and his role as defender of immigrant rights aligns with ACLU positions on immigration enforcement and civil liberties.
← Joaquin Castro person
Organizational score/rating primary since 2021
Castro has maintained a 100% lifetime score from the ACLU on LGBTQ+ issues, indicating his voting record aligns with ACLU positions.
← Morgan McGarvey person
affiliation primary since 2025
ACLU of Kentucky warned the SAVE Act (H.R. 22) would disenfranchise voters; McGarvey voted Nay on the bill in April 2025.
← Ed Case person
affiliation primary since 2024
Case cited free speech concerns aligning with ACLU warnings when voting against H.R. 6090 (Antisemitism Awareness Act).
← Mary Gay Scanlon person
professional_history_and_vote_tension secondary since 2023
Scanlon's pre-congressional career included work as a civil rights attorney with the ACLU. However, she voted against ACLU-recommended positions on at least two significant civil liberties votes in the 118th Congress: the Fiscal Responsibility Act's ICE detention funding and H.R. 7521 TikTok divestiture.
← ImmigrationOS instrument
oversight primary since 2021
Civil liberties organizations including the ACLU and Electronic Frontier Foundation have filed FOIA requests seeking documentation about ImmigrationOS capabilities and data sharing practices.
← Open Society Foundations institution
donor primary
OSF gave ACLU $50M grant in 2014 for immigrant rights litigation.
Likely ally/shared mission (privacy/oversight) inferential since 2026
ACLU is a major civil liberties organization that frequently works on surveillance and privacy issues, parallel to S.T.O.P.'s mission.
Investigative Oversight primary since 2010
The ACLU obtained FOIA disclosures showing that the State Department paid millions in legal fees to Blackwater's defense counsel under indemnification clauses.
Sources (8)
2026 UNVERIFIED Research: American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) — Parliamentary records (no resu… parliamentary_record Processed 📜 Receipt
2026 UNVERIFIED Research: American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) — USASpending contracts (no resu… contract Processed 📜 Receipt
2026-05-09 UNVERIFIED SEARCH_ERROR: American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) not found in opencorporates claim_flag Processed 📜 Receipt
2026 UNVERIFIED Research: American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) — Court records (no results) court_document Processed 📜 Receipt
2026 UNVERIFIED Research: American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) — Lobbying disclosures (no resul… government_disclosure Processed 📜 Receipt
2023-02-27 ↗ ACLU press release web_search Processed 📜 Receipt
2024-01-01 ↗ ACLU press releases and court documents web_search Processed 📜 Receipt
2014-11-07 ↗ Multiple verified news reports and Open Society Foundations documentation web_search Processed 📜 Receipt