Jameel Jaffer

Jameel Jaffer is deputy legal director at the American Civil Liberties Union and director of the ACLU's Center for Democracy, which houses the ACLU's work on national security, human rights, free speech, and privacy and technology. Jaffer joined the staff of the ACLU in 2002 and directed the ACLU's National Security Project between 2007 and 2010. He has litigated many cases concerning national security and human rights, including challenges to the CIA's targeted killing program and the National Security Agency's warrantless wiretapping program. He was also one of the architects of ACLU v. Department of Defense, a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit that yielded hundreds of records relating to the Bush administration's interrogation policies, including the "torture memos" authored by lawyers in the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel. Before joining the staff of the ACLU, Jaffer served as a law clerk to Hon. Amalya L. Kearse on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and to Rt. Hon. Beverley McLachlin, Chief Justice of Canada.