ACLU Names Yasmin Cader as Deputy Executive Director for Program, Strategy, and Culture
Cader has been on the frontlines of civil rights litigation and advocacy for three decades.
NEW YORK — The American Civil Liberties Union announced today that Yasmin Cader will step into a new position as the organization’s Deputy Executive Director for Program, Strategy, and Culture. In this role, Cader will help lead the organization’s work to protect and advance civil rights and civil liberties, drive integrated advocacy strategies across the ACLU, and help shape the organization’s long-term strategic vision.
Cader most recently served as the ACLU’s Deputy Legal Director and Director of the ACLU’s Trone Center for Justice and Equality, where she led the legal department’s work on racial justice and criminal legal reform.
"This is one of the most challenging times for civil liberties and civil rights, and luckily Yasmin Cader has heeded the call to help lead the ACLU at this pivotal moment,” said Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the ACLU. “Steeped in the areas of civil rights and criminal justice reform, Yasmin brings a principled and unwavering commitment to the ACLU’s core principles. She has worked with law enforcement, conservatives, and Republicans, as well as with community activists to advance an agenda that is principled and pragmatic — making a real difference in the lives of impacted communities. Yasmin is a creative visionary who will keep the ACLU laser focused on its work to safeguard civil rights and civil liberties. I am thrilled to welcome her into this new role.”
For over three decades, Cader has been on the frontlines of the national struggle for racial justice as a civil rights lawyer, public defender, educator, and law firm founder. As a public defender in Washington, D.C., New York, and Los Angeles, she witnessed firsthand the devastation of the war on drugs, war on terror, and targeting of immigrant communities.
During her time at the ACLU, Cader helped lead the organization’s response to some of the defining civil rights challenges of the past decade, including the launch of the Abortion Criminal Defense Initiative after the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization. She also led the ACLU’s work responding to attacks on affirmative action and other racial equity and diversity initiatives, advanced innovative approaches to policing and public safety, and helped secure President Joe Biden’s historic commutations for people on federal death row.
"At a time when so many of the institutions that sustain our democracy are being tested, there is no place I would rather be than here at the ACLU,” said Cader. “Our mission has always been simple but fundamental to democracy: ensure that the Constitution's promises belong to everyone. The rights and freedoms the ACLU defends are not someone else's — they belong to all of us. There is not a family in this country whose story has not been shaped by the liberties the ACLU has fought to protect. I am deeply honored to work alongside the extraordinary staff, affiliates, supporters, and partners who make this mission possible every day and to help carry it forward for generations to come.”
Cader, a graduate of Howard University and Yale Law School, began her career as a judicial law clerk for the Honorable Damon J. Keith of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. Before her time as a public defender, she joined the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, where she litigated individual and class-action claims of sexual and racial harassment and discrimination. She has taught at NYU School of Law, UCLA School of Law, and Wayne State University Law School and is a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers.