Staff Attorney, Senior Staff Attorney or Senior Counsel, Voting Rights Project [Term-Limited]

The ACLU seeks applicants for the full-time position of Staff Attorney, Senior Staff Attorney, or Senior Counsel in the Voting Rights Project of the ACLU’s National office in New York, NY or Washington, DC. This is a hybrid role that has in-office requirements of two (2) days per week or eight (8) days per month. This is a 3-year term-limited position.

Established in 1965, the Voting Rights Project has worked to protect the gains in political participation won by voters of color since passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act (VRA). Since its inception, the Voting Rights Project has litigated hundreds of voting rights cases and has aggressively and successfully challenged efforts to suppress voting or to dilute minority voting strength.   

The ACLU Voting Rights Project was established in 1965 – the same year that the historic Voting Rights Act (VRA) was enacted – and has litigated more than 350 cases since that time. Its mission is to build and defend an accessible, inclusive, and equitable democracy free from racial discrimination. We have three principles: (1) all Americans should be eligible to vote; (2) voting should be free and easy; and (3) all people should count equally. The Project employs an integrated advocacy approach, combining legislative advocacy, public education, and litigation, and has active cases in over a dozen states. 

The Voting Rights Project’s recent docket has included more than 30 lawsuits to protect voters during the 2020 election; a pair of recent cases in the Supreme Court challenging the last administration’s discriminatory census policies: Department of Commerce v. New York (successfully challenging an attempt to add a citizenship question to the 2020 Census), and Trump v. New York (challenging the exclusion of undocumented immigrants from the population count used to apportion the House of Representatives); challenges to discriminatory congressional and state legislative maps, including two recent cases in the Supreme Court: Alexander v. South Carolina NAACP (2023), challenging South Carolina’s congressional map as an unconstitutional and starkly racially gerrymandered map; and Allen v. Milligan (2023), successfully challenging Alabama’s congressional map as unlawfully diluting the Black voting power under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act; challenges to voter purges and documentary proof of citizenship laws; and challenges to other new legislation restricting voting rights in states like Georgia and Texas. The ACLU Voting Rights Project is currently litigating voter suppression and minority vote dilution cases in over a dozen states, from coast to coast, in every region of the country.  

This position is part of a collective bargaining unit. It is represented by ACLU Staff United (ASU).

Reporting to the Deputy Director of the Voting Rights Project the Staff Attorney, Senior Staff Attorney or Senior Counsel will be responsible for developing and litigating voting rights cases in state and federal cases. 

• Participate in litigation of constitutional and statutory cases on a wide range of voting rights issues including researching and drafting pleadings, briefs and legal memoranda, engaging in discovery and motion practice, and conducting evidentiary hearings and oral arguments in the trial and appellate courts  
• Participate in analyzing legislation for potential litigation  
• Develop new cases, non-litigation advocacy projects and identify and work with potential plaintiffs and witnesses  
• Work with and advise ACLU state affiliates  
• Provide technical assistance and expert legal advice to cooperating attorneys, and others who seek assistance on voting rights litigation, legislation, and advocacy 
• Serve as a resource for ACLU legislative, policy and campaign work and advancing ACLU policy goals through public education, organizing and participating in coalitions 
• Engage in public speaking and articulating ACLU views to a variety of audiences 
• Collaborate with staff across the organization, including in other projects within the ACLU’s Legal Department, Communications Department, Affiliate and Nationwide Support Initiative, National Political Advocacy Department, Strategy Office, and state affiliates to advance voting rights 
• Travel as required for litigation, conferences, and client development 
• Engage in special projects and other duties as assigned 
• Center principles of equity, inclusion, and belonging in all work, embedding the values in program development, policy application, and organizational practices and processes  

• Be committed to advancing the mission of the ACLU
• Center and embed the principles of equity, inclusion and belonging in their work by demonstrating commitment to diversity with an approach that respects and values multiple perspectives
• Be committed to work collaboratively and respectfully toward resolving obstacles and conflicts

• A J.D. degree and bar membership permitting practice in New York, or a willingness to promptly seek such membership
• A minimum of four years of litigation experience, including clerkships, is preferred 
• Commitment to voting rights, racial justice, and civil liberties; familiarity with these issue areas is preferred
• Strong analytical skills and a high level of proficiency in legal research and writing
• Analytic skills and legal research and writing skills 
• Demonstrated ability to write and to speak clearly and persuasively
• Self-motivation and diligence, with a proven ability to meet deadlines and manage competing priorities in a dynamic environment
• Proven ability to work across a wide range of teams to foster a collaborative environment  

For over 100 years, the ACLU has worked to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed by the Constitution and laws of the United States. Whether it’s ending mass incarceration, achieving full equality for the LGBTQ+ community, establishing new privacy protections for our digital age, or preserving the right to vote or the right to have an abortion, the ACLU takes up the toughest civil liberties cases and issues to defend all people.

We know that great people make a great organization. We value our people and know that what we offer is essential not just their work, but to their overall well-being. 

At the ACLU, we offer a broad range of benefits, which include:

• Time away to focus on the things that matter with a generous paid time-off policy
• Focus on your well-being with comprehensive healthcare benefits (including medical, dental and vision coverage, parental leave, gender affirming care & fertility treatment)
• Plan for your retirement with 401k plan and employer match
• We support employee growth and development through annual professional development funds, internal professional development programs and workshops

Accessibility, equity, diversity and inclusion are core values of the ACLU and central to our work to advance liberty, equality, and justice for all. For us diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion are not just check-the-box activities, but a chance for us to make long-term meaningful change.  We are a community committed to learning and growth, humility and grace, transparency and accountability. We believe in a collective responsibility to create a culture of belonging for all people within our organization – one that respects and embraces difference; treats everyone equitably; and empowers our colleagues to do the best work possible. We are as committed to anti-oppression, anti-ableism, and anti-racism internally as we are externally. Because whether we’re in the courts or in the office, we believe ‘We the People’ means all of us.

With this commitment in mind, we strongly encourage applications from all qualified individuals without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, national origin, marital status, citizenship, disability, veteran status and record of arrest or conviction, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.    

The ACLU is committed to providing reasonable accommodation to individuals with disabilities. If you are a qualified individual with a disability and need assistance applying online, please email benefits.hrdept@aclu.org. If you are selected for an interview, you will receive additional information regarding how to request an accommodation for the interview process.