American Civil Liberties Union elected Deborah Archer as New ACLU President

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A professor at New York University School of Law with expertise in civil rights and racial justice, Deborah Archer has become the first Black person in the 101-year history of the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) to be elected its president. On Monday, the ACLU announced that Archer was elected over the weekend in a virtual meeting of the organization’s 69-member board of directors. She succeeds a professor at Brooklyn Law School, Susan Herman, who had served as president since 2008. Archer will act as chair of its board of directors, as the ACLU’s 8^th president since 1920. She will oversee organizational matters and the setting of civil liberties policies. The fight against racial injustice is expected to be a top priority.

Point to be noted that the ACLU’s day-to-day operations are managed by its executive director, a post currently held by Anthony Romero. The ACLU filed 413 lawsuits and other legal actions against his administration during former President Donald Trump’s years in office. Those lawsuits were aimed to challenge policies related to immigrant rights, voting rights, LGBT rights, racial justice, and other issues. The ACLU national office and its state affiliates received about $175 million in donations in the three months after Trump’s election to help to finance a major expansion of staff. Archer said, “The ACLU has proven itself as an invaluable voice in the fight for civil rights in the last four years of the Trump era, and we are better positioned than ever to face the work ahead”.

Archer was a legal fellow at the ACLU in 1997-98 after graduating from Yale Law School. She has been a member of the ACLU’s board since 2009, a general counsel, and a member of the board’s executive committee since 2017. She has served as chair of the New York City Civilian Complaint Review Board, which investigates alleged police misconduct. Archer was also assistant counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. The newly installed administration of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will be more attentive to the ACLU’s major concerns than the former Trump administration. Romero said, “President Trump may be gone but his toxic legacy on civil rights and civil liberties is still very much with us. It will take years to clean up”.