The American Civil Rights Union is an US civil liberties organization founded by former Reagan Administration official Robert B. Carleson in 1998. It was founded in response to views that the most prominent civil liberties organization, the American Civil Liberties Union, was too leftward leaning; ACRU has been described as a conservative civil liberties advocacy group. The ACRU has filed amicus briefs in court cases involving the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), gun ownership and property rights cases, and cases involving the Boy Scouts of America including the 2000 U.S. Supreme Court case of "Boy Scouts of America v. Dale", defending the Boy Scouts' freedom of association right to create their own criteria for membership by barring gay Scout leaders.