ACLU also did not go to the original source of the Bill of Rights; that is, to George Mason, the author of the Virginia Bill of Rights, upon which the US Bill of Rights is based. Remember George Mason? He and Patrick Henry refused to sign the Constitution. Henry refused to sign because we had just overthrown a monarch, and it was incomprehensible to him that we would install a new king (president) with an army at his disposal. I've been trying for a couple of weeks now to remember his exact words, but it fails me. George Mason refused to sign because of the lack of a Bill of Rights. When asked "Who are the militia?" he answered, "Why all of the people, of course. To disbar the people of the right to bear arms would be the quickest way to enslave them"
The Virginia Declaration of Rights - 1776; http://www.project21.org/VirginiaDeclaration.html
" Written by George Mason (1725-1792), who Thomas Jefferson regarded as the "the wisest man of his generation," the Virginia Declaration of Rights was adopted by the Virginia Constitutional Convention on June 12, 1776. Widely copied by the other colonies (by the end of 1776 five colonies had adopted declarations of rights; by 1783 every state had some form of a bill of rights), it became the basis of the Bill of Rights to the U.S. Constitution after Mason fought against ratification of the Constitution because it contained no bill of rights. The Declaration of Rights was also used by Thomas Jefferson for the opening paragraphs of the Declaration of Independence. The Marquis de Condorcet called the Virginia Declaration of Rights 'the first Bill of Rights to merit the name.'"
"A DECLARATION OF RIGHTS made by the representatives of the good people of Virginia, assembled in full and free convention which rights do pertain to them and their posterity, as the basis and foundation of government ."......
Section 13. That a well-regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the proper, natural, and safe defense of a free state; that standing armies, in time of peace, should be avoided as dangerous to liberty; and that in all cases the military should be under strict subordination to, and governed by, the civil power.
In 1920, a small group of visionaries came together to discuss how to start the engine. Led by Roger Baldwin, a social worker and labor activist, the group included Crystal Eastman, Albert DeSilver, Jane Addams, Felix Frankfurter, Helen Keller and Arthur Garfield Hayes. They formed the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and dedicated themselves to holding the government to the Bill of Rights' promises.
Actually, your question could be just a little broader .... why doesn't the ACLU endorse the individual right to property?
I just read an old blip on Roger Baldwin earlier today. It was from the Oct. 98 issue of http://newswatchmagazine.org (that particular thread is no longer there). It read ...."Roger Baldwin, founder of the American Civil Liberties Union, was a professed Communist. The ACLU was created to undermine all the Constitutional rights of the courts...."
Search results for Virginia Declaration of Rights: LINK
President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaimed December 15 as Bill of Rights Day in 1941, and it has been observed nationally since then.--from a 1971 volume B of World Book Encyclopedia
So, happy Bill of Rights Day, everyone!