ACLU executive director steps down

Jack Van Valkenburgh has stepped down as executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union.

During Van Valkenburgh’s tenure, the ACLU in Idaho grew from 350 to over 2,000 members, and from having no staff to a staff of six. Through its legal, legislative and educational programs, the ACLU in Idaho has battled for the rights of women, prisoners, students, gays, immigrants, and other minorities, as well as successfully litigating for the rights of all Idaho voters to a politically neutral polling place.
While viewed by some Idahoans as a liberal organization, Van Valkenburgh said the ACLU defends everyone’s civil liberties, especially their right to free speech. “Our client, our real client, is the Bill of Rights,” said Van Valkenburgh.
In 1990 Van Valkenburgh established an ACLU office in Boise just as the Idaho Legislature began one of its most controversial sessions, during which it passed a ban on virtually all abortions. After then-Gov. Cecil Andrus vetoed the bill, the Steele-Reese Foundation provided the ACLU’s Idaho Chapter a grant to help establish the ACLU as a permanent presence in Idaho.
A farewell party given by friends had music, skits and comedy to send off the retiring leader. Jason Monteleone, a partner with Johnson & Monteleone, said the send-off was all in good fun.
“Jack is going to be incredibly missed,” he said following last week’s event. “I think he was particularly good and effective on ‘choice’ and First Amendment issues. And, he was zealous and yet still reasonable when it came to protecting the civil liberties in the state.”
Van Valkenburgh expressed pride in the legal and legislative accomplishments of the ACLU in Idaho, including court victories for free speech, reproductive rights, academic freedom, and improved jail and prison conditions.
Van Valkenburgh noted that the ACLU in Idaho has played a leading role in fighting for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender rights in the state, working successfully against two anti-gay state initiatives in the 1990s and fighting the 2006 anti-gay civil union and marriage constitutional amendment. Over the past 18 years the ACLU has been successful in challenging most abortion restrictions passed by the Idaho legislature, often serving as co-counsel with Planned Parenthood.