The nascent organization took care to present itself as nonpartisan due to ongoing McCarthyism;[2] news coverage noted that it had no connection with the Hawaii Civil Rights Congress, but stated that the national ACLU had been said to include "left-wingers" among its members.

The Honolulu Advertiser reported that the organization would be nonpartisan and focus solely on "the defense of civil liberties in freedom of speech, association and religion; due process, and equal treatment under law".

[13] Along with three other ACLU attorneys, Chung filed an amicus brief in August, describing the statute as "an unjustifiable abridgment of free speech" and stating that it was unconstitutionally vague and "should not be applied to the politically expressive conduct of the defendants".

The boys arranged to receive legal assistance through the ACLU of Hawaiʻi, which planned to represent them on the basis that regulations imposed by schools should be related to the educational process.

The release of the SPA statement, which called for infiltration of the United States Armed Forces and violent sabotage of military operations with the goal of disrupting the Vietnam War, led the administration to decline tenure for Professor Lee.