ACLU Sues Rumsfeld: Speaker Bios and Contact Information

Anthony D. Romero is Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union. He took the helm of the organization in September 2001, a week before the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Under his leadership, the ACLU has continuously stood up for civil liberties and steadfastly maintained that it is possible to be both safe and free. Romero came to the ACLU from the Ford Foundation’s Human Rights and International Cooperation Program, which he led through a period of extraordinary growth, transforming it into Ford’s largest and most dynamic grant-making unit. He sits on several not-for-profit boards and is a member of the New York State Bar Association.

Contact: Emily Whitfield or Paul Silva, ACLU National Office (212) 549-2666; media@aclu.org
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Michael Posner has been the Executive Director of Human Rights First (formerly the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights) since its founding in 1978. Posner has traveled on behalf of Human Rights First on missions to more than 50 countries and, over the past quarter century, has worked on human rights issues in every region of the world. He has testified before Congress dozens of times on a wide range of issues, from refugee and workers rights to policing in Northern Ireland to the rights of torture victims worldwide. He is a regular commentator in the media on human rights issues.

Contact: David Danzig, Human Rights First, (o) (212) 845-5252; (c) (917) 523-5225;
DanzigD@humanrightsfirst.org or Sean Crowley, (o) (202) 478-6128; (c) (202) 550-6524; seancrowley@mrss.com
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Rear Admiral John D. Hutson served as the Navy’s Judge Advocate General from 1997 to 2000. He currently serves as the President and Dean of the Franklin Pierce Law Center in Concord, New Hampshire. As the Judge Advocate General of the Navy, Admiral Hutson presided over the JAG Corps — 1,600 officers, enlisted and civilian personnel in the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Marines — and advised the Secretary of the Navy, the Commandant of the Marines, and the senior leadership of the Navy in all legal matters related to military justice.

Contact: David Danzig, Human Rights First, (o) (212) 845-5252; (c) (917) 523-5225;
DanzigD@humanrightsfirst.org or Sean Crowley, (o) (202) 478-6128; (c) (202) 550-6524; seancrowley@mrss.com
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Bill Lann Lee, a partner with the law firm Lieff, Cabraser, Heimann & Bernstein, LLP in San Francisco, is the former Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Justice. Lee was an attorney for 17 years with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the law firm founded by Justice Thurgood Marshal. He headed the Legal Defense Fund’s Western Regional Office in Los Angeles. In December 1997, Lee was appointed as Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights by President Bill Clinton and served until January 2001.

Contact: Elaine Elinson; eelinson@tsoft.net
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Lucas Guttentag is the national director of the Immigrants’ Rights Project of the ACLU. He founded the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project (IRP) in New York in 1987 and established the California office in 1996. Under his direction, the IRP’s staff conducts a program of national impact litigation, advocacy and public education to enforce and expand the constitutional and civil rights of immigrants. He has argued many cases in federal courts of appeal throughout the country and has successfully argued in the United States Supreme Court. Mr. Guttentag is a lecturer at U.C. Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School of Law and Stanford Law School, where he teaches courses on the constitutional and civil rights of immigrants.

Contact: Emily Whitfield or Paul Silva, ACLU National Office (212) 549-2666; media@aclu.org
or Maelle Fonteneau, ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project, (510) 625 – 2010 ext. 240 or mfonteneau@aclu.org
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Deborah Pearlstein is Director of the U.S. Law and Security Program at Human Rights First, and a visiting lecturer in human rights and national security at Stanford Law School. Pearlstein leads Human Rights First’s efforts in research, litigation, and advocacy related to U.S. counterterrorism and national security policies. An expert in U.S. constitutional law, she focuses on U.S. detention and intelligence operations, executive power, and the role of the courts. Pearlstein clerked for Judge Michael Boudin of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, and then for Justice John Paul Stevens of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Contact: David Danzig, Human Rights First, (o) (212) 845-5252; (c) (917) 523-5225;
DanzigD@humanrightsfirst.org or Sean Crowley, (o) (202) 478-6128; (c) (202) 550-6524; seancrowley@mrss.com
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Steven R. Shapiro is the Legal Director of the ACLU. He directs a staff of more than 65 full-time lawyers who maintain a large and active docket of civil liberties cases around the country. Those cases cover a broad range of issues, including: free speech, racial justice, religious freedom, national security, due process, privacy, reproductive and women’s rights, immigrants’ rights, gay rights, voting rights, and prisoners’ rights. Shapiro has been the ACLU’s Legal Director since 1993, and served as Associate Legal Director from 1987-1993. During that time, he has appeared as counsel or co-counsel on more than 200 ACLU briefs submitted to the United States Supreme Court. Shapiro is also an adjunct professor of constitutional law at Columbia Law School, and a frequent speaker and writer on civil liberties issues.

Contact: Emily Whitfield or Paul Silva, ACLU National Office (212) 549-2666; media@aclu.org
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