News & Commentary written by Yasmin Cader

Yasmin Cader is the ACLU’s Deputy Executive Director for Program, Strategy, and Culture. She works closely with the Executive Director and senior leadership team to help lead the organization’s strategic direction, strengthen organizational culture, and align its nationwide work to defend and advance civil rights and civil liberties. Before assuming this role, she served as the ACLU’s Deputy Legal Director and Director of the Trone Center for Justice and Equality, where she led the organization’s work across criminal justice and racial justice. Throughout her career, Yasmin has been guided by a simple conviction: The Constitution's promises belong to everyone, and protecting the rights of any one of us ultimately protects the freedom of us all.

Under her leadership, the Trone Center spearheaded groundbreaking litigation and advocacy efforts to transform the criminal legal system, including by challenging unconstitutional policing practices, dismantling cash bail, protecting the rights and humanity of incarcerated people, and bringing systemic challenges to the death penalty across the country. Her team has been at the forefront of advancing racial justice in education, housing, employment, and economic opportunity.

Yasmin’s tenure at the ACLU coincided with some of the most consequential civil rights challenges of the past decade. Following the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, she helped launch the Abortion Criminal Defense Initiative ensuring legal defense for providers and patients facing prosecution in the wake of abortion restrictions. She also oversaw the ACLU’s response to attacks on racial equity and diversity initiatives, advanced innovate approaches to policing and public safety, and helped secure President Joe Biden’s historic commutations for people on federal death row.

Before joining the ACLU, Yasmin spent two decades as a public defender in state and federal courts across the country, representing children and adults facing the most serious criminal charges, including capital cases and cases involving allegations of domestic and international terrorism. She later served as the Chief of Training at the Federal Public Defender (FPD) Office in Los Angeles, where she developed substantive legal and trial skills training programs for attorneys in Los Angeles and across the country.

Yasmin also co-founded Cader Adams Trial Lawyers, a women-owned litigation boutique in Los Angeles. During her time in private practice, she served on the Los Angeles Board of Police Commission’s Advisory Committee on Building Trust and Equity and the Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent’s Reimagining School Safety Task Force.

A proud graduate of Howard University and Yale Law School, Yasmin began her career as a law clerk to the Honorable Damon J. Keith of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. She then joined the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, through the Honors Program, where she litigated individual and class-action claims of sexual and racial harassment and discrimination.

Yasmin has taught at NYU School of Law, UCLA Law School, and Wayne University Law School and delivered keynote remarks at Yale Law School, Bard College, Loyola Law School, and the University of Illinois College of Law, where she gave the 2025 Paul M. Van Arsdell  Memorial Lecture. She has also presented events hosted by prominent businesses, media, and arts organizations, including Edelman, Fast Company, HARNESS, and Ava DuVernay’s ARRAY.

Passionate about developing the next generation of public interest lawyers and leaders, Yasmin has mentored and trained advocates at Gideon’s Promise, the National Criminal Defense College, and Harvard Law’s Trial Advocacy Workshop. Yasmin is also a fellow with The American College of Trial Lawyers.

Across every stage of her career — as a public defender, civil rights lawyer, teacher and organizational leader — Yasmin has remained committed to strengthening the institutions that protect constitutional rights for generations to come.