When it comes to ACLU fundraising, Kennedy said, donors to the nonprofit pay little attention to big-case losses because they support the broader mission of the group to challenge government intrusions on individual rights.

Federal courts are less protective of civil rights than in years past, but civil liberties groups still need to litigate good-faith claims to test laws, said Ivan Bodensteiner, a constitutional law expert at the Valparaiso University School of Law. If lawyers want only to win cases, they won’t bring many.

“You sometimes file a lawsuit knowing that it’s difficult, knowing that there’s a good chance you’re not going to prevail,” Bodensteiner said.

The ACLU-Indiana is one of the better state chapters in the country, he said.

“They have a very good reputation as one of the more active state chapters, one of the more competent,” Bodensteiner said.

Falk and the chapter’s two other staff attorneys, Jacquelyn Bowie Suess and Gavin Rose, and a legal assistant receive about 800 requests for legal advice each month, he said. Each year they file 20 to 30 new cases, which can take years to resolve.

Wins and losses are part of the legal process, Falk said, and he can’t worry about the philosophical leanings of the individual judges and justices he goes before.

“You bring cases because you think they’re meritorious and there’s a reason to do so, and then the cases are litigated,” he said.