Please join the American Constitution Society for a timely discussion with Steven Shapiro on how progressive legal organizations can use impact litigation to defend constitutional rights. The talk, titled “Defending the Bill of Rights: Decisionmaking and Advocacy at the ACLU,” will provide insight into the thinking and strategy behind this kind of impact litigation. Mr. Shapiro is uniquely qualified to speak on the subject, having served as the Legal Director of the American Civil Liberties Union, the nation’s oldest and largest civil liberties organization, from 1993 – 2016. Mr. Shapiro is an adjunct professor at Columbia Law School, and is currently teaching Civil Liberties and the Response to Terrorism here at Stanford Law School.

At the ACLU, Mr. Shapiro directed a staff of approximately 90 full-time lawyers who maintained a large and active docket of civil liberties cases around the country. Those cases covered a broad range of issues, including: free speech, racial justice, religious freedom, due process, privacy, reproductive and women’s rights, immigrant’s rights, gay rights, voting rights, prisoner’s rights, and the death penalty. During his time at the ACLU, Mr. Shapiro appeared as counsel or co-counsel on more than 200 ACLU briefs submitted to the United States Supreme Court.