Lee Gelernt

Lee Gelernt is a lawyer at the ACLU who is widely recognized as one of the nation’s leading public interest lawyers. He has argued some of the country’s highest-profile cases, including in the U.S. Supreme Court and ten federal courts of appeals, and he has testified in the House and Senate. He also teaches at Columbia Law School.

Among Gelernt’s cases is a successful challenge to the first Trump administration’s practice of separating thousands of families at the border. Gelernt’s work received worldwide attention, including in the 2020 documentary The Fight and in the July 2018 New York Times Magazine cover story about the ACLU. He is currently lead counsel in a challenge to the current Trump administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act, which has resulted in hundreds of Venezuelans being sent to the notorious Salvadoran CECOT prison without any due process.

Gelernt has won numerous awards and has been recognized as one of the 500 leading lawyers in the country. He lectures widely around the country and regularly appears in the media.