Capital Punishment

Capital punishment falls under the category of Ideological/Single-Issue interest groups. They are organized through mainly through religious institutions or chapters and state affiliates. The ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) has approximately 300,000 members nationwide and is based on strict adherence to federal and state constitutions and their Bill of Rights. The ACLU believes that capital punishment violates the Constitutional prohibitions on cruel and unusual punishment and equal protection of the laws (aclu.org). The ACLU …

…its purpose. On capital punishment, special interest groups who protest are more accessible to get information from because they are the ones attempting to make a significant change, while the ones who are satisfied with the status quo are less active. Therefore, that is why we see legislation in Congress being discussed about death penalty reform and not a stricter death penalty law because human rights’ interest groups are the ones lobbying to influence legislation.