Kansas City, Mo. ? American Civil Liberties Union officials say they have begun a new and more aggressive effort to intervene in Missouri and Kansas over highly public issues like same-sex marriage, privacy and police policy.

The ACLU’s Missouri chapter has been actively involved in the protests in Ferguson over Michael Brown’s shooting death by a Ferguson police officer. It’s sued on behalf of a reporter arrested during a protest and argued for protections for street demonstrators.

In Kansas, the state’s chapter has helped lead the legal battle over the state’s same-sex marriage ban.

The Kansas City Star reports critics say the nonprofit is straying from its initial mission of protecting civil liberties to promote a more liberal agenda.

But an ACLU official with its Missouri chapter says the group has worked closely with conservatives before. He acknowledges, though, that the public doesn’t always see the ACLU as nonpartisan.