Deborah Archer, Civil Rights Scholar and Lawyer to Direct the ACLU

Civil Rights Attorney, Inclusion Qualified Deborah Archer Elected as New ACLU Nationwide Board President

Professor Archer Will be the To start with Black Lady to Lead the 101-12 months-Previous Organization’s 69-Man or woman Board

FOR Quick Release

February 1, 2021

Get in touch with: Gabriela Melendez, [email protected]

NEW YORK — The American Civil Liberties Union declared these days that its countrywide board elected Deborah Archer as its new president. Archer replaces Susan Herman, who stepped down following serving 12 many years major the organization’s board by means of watershed times, like the Trump administration and the emergence of civil liberties and privateness concerns in the electronic age.

An founded civil legal rights lawyer, scholar, and trainer, Archer began her vocation as the Marvin M. Karpatkin Legal Fellow at the ACLU. She has been a member of the ACLU board because 2009, and a basic counsel and member of the govt committee of the board considering the fact that 2017. She also serves on the board of directors of the New York Civil Liberties Union. In this new role, she provides with her a prosperity of encounter on racial justice and constitutional issues. The election of Deborah Archer marks the 1st time a Black person will direct the ACLU’s board of directors.

“After starting my occupation as an ACLU fellow, it is an honor to occur total circle and now direct the group as board president,” said Deborah Archer. “The ACLU has confirmed itself as an invaluable voice in the fight for civil legal rights in the last four decades of the Trump era, and we are far better positioned than ever to facial area the perform in advance. This organization has been section of each individual crucial struggle for civil liberties during our initially century, and we are committed to continuing that legacy as we enter our next. I could not be additional fired up to get to perform.”

The board satisfied just about on Saturday to forged the vote for its upcoming president. The ACLU Nationwide Board is manufactured up of 69 associates, which includes 51 specifically elected by ACLU affiliate boards as their representatives, and 18 elected by all affiliate and countrywide board users. The ACLU National Board votes to set issues of organizational policy and substantive civil liberties procedures. It also oversees problems linked to typical economic administration and the connection among the national ACLU and its affiliate marketers, which includes the provision of means and guidance to the affiliate marketers, as effectively as other obligations.

“As the place enters the article-Trump period, it is vital that those in management intimately have an understanding of the background that brought us to this inflection point, and the work in advance,” said Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the ACLU.  “There is no a person superior equipped, who greatest personifies or is extra capable to helm the long term battles for civil legal rights, civil liberties, and systemic equality than Deborah Archer.”

For both of those the nation as a entire and the ACLU, 2020 was a watershed calendar year. The region struggled with its heritage of white supremacy and racism, a protest movement that rivaled only by the Civil Rights Era of the 1960s, the COVID-19 pandemic, and a single of the optimum turnout elections in background. The ACLU celebrated its centennial year, submitted its 413th authorized motion versus the Trump administration, took about 100 legal actions in reaction to the pandemic, continued its perform to protect protestors, and filed more than 37 lawsuits to make sure obtain to the polls.

Deborah Archer is a tenured professor of clinical legislation and director of the Civil Rights Clinic at New York College University of Regulation, and co-college director of the Center on Race, Inequality, and the Legislation at NYU Regulation. Professor Archer previously served as the inaugural dean of variety and inclusion and as associate dean for tutorial affairs and university student engagement at New York Regulation College. She has served as chair of the New York Town Civilian Grievance Evaluation Board,  and on numerous nonprofit boards, which includes the Lawful Assist Modern society and the Nationwide Heart for Legislation and Financial Justice. In recognition of her operate, the New York Law Journal named her just one of its 2016 Prime Women in Regulation. Previously, Archer was assistant counsel at the NAACP Authorized Defense and Academic Fund and an affiliate at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett.

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