Politics

ACLU Website Crashes After Tons of Donations

By  | 

In the wake of Donald Trump’s presidential win on Tuesday night, a lot of people were concerned about what a Trump presidency might mean for Americans’ civil rights. One of the biggest defenders of those rights is the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), a legal organization that regularly sues the government when it believes individuals’ rights are being infringed upon. In the wake of Trump’s election, the ACLU has seen record donations, so many, in fact, that the organization’s website crashed on Wednesday morning.

Between Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning, the group recorded almost $1 million in contributions, from 14,000 donations. By Thursday morning, it was up to $2.4 million from 38,626 donations.

These are record-breaking donation totals. Mark Weir, the group’s chief development officer told Business Insider: “In terms of online donations in a single-day, it far exceeds anything we’ve seen before.” The ACLU’s donation website crashed on Wednesday morning, although it’s unclear for how long. According to an ACLU spokesperson who talked to Buzzfeed: “it’s hard to say how long it was down for and we’re trying to pull dollars and gift numbers. Our system is extremely overwhelmed with all of the hits we’re getting.”

The ACLU has been clear that it will sue Trump over some of his proposed policies, should he try to implement them. The organization even took out a full page ad in the New York Times on Friday, making that exact promise:

There are a number of policies that Trump advocated for throughout the election that the ACLU takes issue with, including proposed mass deportation, a ban on Muslim immigration and/or more targeted monitoring of Muslim individuals, changes to abortion laws, and restrictions on Freedom of Speech and Freedom of the Press.

It seems that the ACLU’s promise has struck a chord with many Americans, if the donations are any indication.

Anneliese Mahoney
Anneliese Mahoney
Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

Share:
Related Items

Comments

comments

Send this to friend