David Cole
Founding Editor
David Cole (@DavidColeACLU) is National Legal Director of the ACLU and a professor at Georgetown University Law Center, a volunteer attorney for the Center for Constitutional Rights, the legal affairs correspondent for The Nation, and a regular contributor to the New York Review of Books. He is the author of seven books, and his books have received multiple awards, including the American Book Award for Enemy Aliens: Double Standards and Constitutional Freedoms in the War on Terrorism.
He has litigated many significant constitutional cases in the Supreme Court, including Texas v. Johnson and United States v. Eichman, which extended First Amendment protection to flagburning; National Endowment for the Arts v. Finley, which challenged political content restriction on NEA funding; and most recently, Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project, which challenged the constitutionality of the statute prohibiting “material support” to terrorist groups, which makes speech advocating peace and human rights a crime.
New York Times columnist Anthony Lewis has called David “one of the country’s great legal voices for civil liberties today,” and Nat Hentoff has called him “a one-man Committee of Correspondence in the tradition of patriot Sam Adams.” David has received numerous awards for his human rights work, including most recently the inaugural Norman Dorsen Prize from the ACLU for lifetime commitment to civil liberties.
Areas of Expertise: Constitutional Law, Courts and Judges, Criminal Law and Procedure, National Security, Military, War and Peace, Surveillance, Civil Liberties
Selected Media Appearances
Television
“Gun Show Loophole” – MSNBC (The Ed Show)
Radio
Debate: Does Spying Keep Us Safe? – NPR (Intelligence Squared U.S.)
Your Digital Trail: Does The Fourth Amendment Protect Us? – NPR (All Things Considered)
Online
Time to End the Spying Game – The Nation
President Obama, did or did you not kill Anwar al-Awlaki? – The Washington Post
Rewarding Impunity – Foreign Policy
Obama At U.N. To Remind World Of His Policy Goals – NPR
The Memos: Torture Redefined – The New York Times (Room for Debate)
Articles by this author:
We’ll See You in Court: Why Trump’s Executive Order on Refugees Violates the Establishment Clause
by David Cole
Jan 28th, 2017
Donald Trump’s Wall, David Rieff’s Long War, and the Dangers of Fear-Mongering
by David Cole
Jul 25th, 2016
Engines of Liberty: How Civil Society Helped Restore Constitutional Rights in the Aftermath of 9/11
by David Cole
Mar 28th, 2016
The Course of Least Resistance: Ignoring the Lessons of History in Responding to ISIS
by David Cole
Nov 23rd, 2015
The False Choice of Opposing Torture or Endless War: A Response to Samuel Moyn
by David Cole
Oct 13th, 2015
No Torture Means No Torture – Why We Need the McCain-Feinstein Anti-Torture Amendment
by David Cole
Jun 10th, 2015
“New Torture Files”: Declassified Memos Detail Roles of Bush White House and DOJ Officials Who Conspired to Approve Torture
by David Cole
Mar 2nd, 2015
On Rereading the Torture Report – SSCI Focus Gave Too Many Perpetrators a Pass
by David Cole
Feb 22nd, 2015
Unfinished Business: The Trickle-Down Effects of the War on ISIS on Civil Liberties, Human Rights, and the Rule of Law
by David Cole
Sep 22nd, 2014
No, You Can’t Strip Americans of their Citizenship, Senator Cruz: The Folly of the Expatriate Terrorists Act
by David Cole
Sep 17th, 2014
The Problems with Counterterrorism Stings: A Response to Samuel Rascoff
by David Cole
Jul 24th, 2014
Collect It All!: Newly Released NSA Documents Reveal Omnivorous Appetite for our Private Data
by David Cole
May 13th, 2014
Data-Mining, Section 215, and Regulating the Government’s Use of Stored Data: The Overlooked, but More Important, Question About NSA Surveillance
by David Cole and Marty Lederman
Dec 23rd, 2013
So Much for a New Drone Policy – Why Can’t the US Explain Why It Targeted a Wedding Party?
by David Cole
Dec 21st, 2013