Ira Glasser was trained as a mathematician and taught mathematics at City University in New York and Sarah Lawrence College, before becoming associate editor and then editor of Current, a monthly magazine of public affairs. In 1967 he was appointed Associate Director of the New York Civil Liberties Union and became Executive Director in 1970. In 1978, he was chosen to be the Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union, in which capacity he served until his retirement in 2001.

Blog Entries by Ira Glasser

Christmas Day in a Louisiana Dungeon

Posted December 25, 2008 | 10:10 AM (EST)


This is a story about a double crucifixion happening on the very day that hundreds of millions of Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus. It happened yesterday, too, and it will happen tomorrow, unless people of good will and moral decency rise up and stand against it.

The story...

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A Taxpayer's Manifesto

Posted September 22, 2008 | 05:45 PM (EST)


Socialism has now come openly and explicitly to America. And it has come
to save free market capitalism.

What else can one call it when the government takes over entire huge
private sector entities for the good of society; when many hundreds of billions
of taxpayer dollars...

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Ira Glasser Remembers William F. Buckley, Jr.

Posted March 12, 2008 | 01:49 PM (EST)


William F. Buckley, Jr., conservative intellectual -- and supporter of drug policy reform -- passed away February 27, 2008. He is remembered by Ira Glasser, president of the Drug Policy Alliance's board and former executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union:

It was sometime in the eighties. I had...

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Why I Join

Posted September 30, 2006 | 07:11 PM (EST)


Over the past several years, there has been increasing controversy within the ACLU over alleged breaches of principle and cover-ups by Anthony Romero,the Executive Director. There have also been charges by a number of Board members that the Board, and particularly its leadership, has failed to confront its problem and...

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