Blog of Rights
Anthony D.
Romero

Anthony D. Romero is the Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union. He took the helm just four days before the September 11, 2001 attacks. Shortly afterward, the ACLU launched its national Safe and Free campaign to protect basic freedoms during a time of crisis. Romero has led the ACLU in its fight to restore civil liberties, including pushing for accountability for torture committed under the Bush administration and fighting the practice of indefinite detention. Romero is the ACLU's sixth executive director, and the first Latino and openly gay man to serve in that capacity. (Photo by Richard Corman)

 

04/22/2013
Boston Marathon Bombings

The Constitution Applies to All Americans, No Matter What They Are Accused Of

By Anthony D. Romero, ACLU at 12:28pm

Our country has been shaken by the events coming out of Boston in the past week. First, of course, there was the tragedy and loss of life...

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04/16/2012
I Am Not a Stereotype

Working to End Racial Profiling: ACLU to Testify Before Senate Judiciary

By Anthony D. Romero, ACLU at 2:24pm

Racial profiling is based on crass stereotypes and assumptions, instead of facts, evidence and good solid police work.

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06/11/2012
Plyler v. Doe

School Is For Everyone: Celebrating Plyler v. Doe

By Anthony D. Romero, ACLU at 10:11am

Jocelyn came to the United States when she was six years old, brought by a single mom who wanted her to go to school and have a better life than she did. Today, at age 14, Jocelyn is an honors student in Alabama, where she hopes to become the first in her family to graduate from high school, and to one day become a doctor. Jocelyn is striving to live the American Dream. 

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03/28/2013
Defense of Marriage Act

The ACLU and Windsor: "The future is ours. Equality is in this country's DNA."

By Anthony D. Romero, ACLU at 10:45am

I sat in the Supreme Court yesterday hearing the historic arguments in the Windsor case. I felt a mixture of pride...

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11/29/2012
Anti-Immigrant Laws

Arizona's Denial of Licenses for Immigrant Youths Won't Stop the DREAMers

By Anthony D. Romero, ACLU at 3:40pm

The ACLU and its partners today filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of young immigrants who came to the United States as children

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06/25/2012
S.B. 1070 at the Supreme Court

Supreme Court Deals Blow to 3 Provisions of Arizona’s Racial Profiling Law but Allows “Show Me Your Papers” Provision to Live Another Day

By Anthony D. Romero, ACLU at 3:53pm

Today’s Supreme Court decision in Arizona v. United States rightly rejects three parts of Arizona’s controversial SB 1070 law as unconstitutional.

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05/27/2009

The Best of Days, The Worst of Days

By Anthony D. Romero, ACLU at 11:19am

(Originally posted on Huffington Post.)

It was a day of personal schizophrenia for me.

I woke up on the west coast with news of President Obama's selection of Sonia Sotomayor as the next associate justice of the U.S. Supreme court. My heart swelled with such pride. Over the years, I've had occasion to meet Judge Sotomayor and watched her ascent in judicial circles with such pride.

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08/22/2004

August 22, 2004

By Anthony D. Romero, ACLU at 10:08pm
This will not read like an authoritative ACLU report on the Guantanamo Military Commissions; we hope to provide that later.

I'm dictating this weblog to give our ACLU colleagues and all of you a sense of what this black box known as Guantanamo is like.

I arrived yesterday on a commercial charter plane from Fort Lauderdale.
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06/15/2012
DREAM Act

A Lifeline for DREAMers

By Anthony D. Romero, ACLU at 1:33pm
Today the Obama administration announced that it will stop deporting and give work permits to young adults who came to the U.S. as children, or DREAMers.
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12/10/2008
Guantánamo

An Insider's View of Gitmo This Week

By Anthony D. Romero, ACLU at 6:04pm

I just stepped off an airplane from Gitmo last night and thought it would be a good time to offer an insider’s take on what really happened down there this week. Unlike the many stories that have been in the press, what follows is a view from the defense table that provides a fuller perspective on the proceedings than what’s been reported.

As you might know, the ACLU has, along with the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL), created the John Adams Project, through which we have sponsored expert civilian counsel to team up with the military defense lawyers representing the 9/11 defendants. It’s part of our ongoing struggle to bring a modicum of fairness to these sham prosecutions and to get Guantánamo shut down for once and for all.

As I write this today our struggle to shut Gitmo and shutter the military commissions is far from over and is anything but a fait accompli.

You probably read in the papers that on Monday, all five defendants expressed an interest in entering guilty pleas in the 9/11 case.This wasn't unexpected news to anyone, as they essentially expressed that viewpoint from the very first hearing in June of this year.

What did change was that the defendants have been meeting as a group since the last hearing. They have recently asked to have all pending law and evidentiary motions withdrawn and that they be allowed to proceed to enter guilty pleas and be sentenced to death. All five men submitted a handwritten motion to the military judge on November 4, 2008 (Election Day) stating that this is how they would like to proceed.

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