ACLU Director to Speak on Defending Liberty

David Cole, the National Legal Director of the American Civil Liberties Union, will speak on April 3 at 12:10 pm in Room 127. His lecture, “We’ll See You in Court—Defending Liberty in the Age of Trump,” will discuss the approaches of the ACLU during the current administration. The event, which is sponsored by the Yale Law School chapter of the American Constitution Society, will also be live streamed.

During the first months of Donald Trump's presidency, the ACLU has emerged as one of the most prominent organizations challenging the administration's policies and proposals on a range of issues, including refugee policy, reproductive rights, the President's potential conflicts of interest, and freedom of the press. Cole will speak about the threats Trump poses, what can be done to resist them, and the ACLU's strategies going forward.

David Cole is on leave from Georgetown Law School, where he is the inaugural George J. Mitchell Professor in Law and Public Policy. Throughout his career, Cole has litigated a number of important cases at the United States Supreme Court, including Texas v. Johnson, United States v. Eichman, and Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project. An award-winning author, his most recent book is Engines of Liberty: The Power of Citizen Activists to Make Constitutional Law.

The American Constitution Society (ACS) is the largest student group at Yale Law School. ACS aims to foster community-wide discussion on progressive issues in law and to provide a forum for the Yale Law progressive community.