<span class="vcard">Jameel Jaffer</span>

Jameel Jaffer

Executive Editor

Jameel Jaffer (BlueskyLinkedInX) is Executive Editor at Just Security. He is also inaugural director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University.  He previously served as 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 human rights, national security, speech, privacy, and technology.  Since joining the staff of the ACLU in 2002, he litigated many cases relating to security and human rights, including challenges to the CIA’s targeted killing program and the National Security Agency’s warrantless wiretapping program.  He also represented the ACLU and other human rights organizations in ACLU v. Department of Defense, litigation under the Freedom of Information Act that resulted in the release of thousands of records about the Bush administration’s torture policies, including the “torture memos” written by the Office of Legal Counsel.  He is a graduate of Williams College, Cambridge University, and Harvard Law School.

Areas of ExpertiseHuman Rights, National Security, Privacy, Targeted Killing, Surveillance, Torture, Military Commissions

Selected Media Appearances
Television
Obama Declares The Beginning Of The End Of The War On Terror – MSNBC (The Rachel Maddow Show)
President Obama Preserves Abuses – MSNBC (The Rachel Maddow Show)
Jameel Jaffer On National Security – CBC (George Stoumboulopoulos Tonight)

Radio
Government Surveillance and YouWNYC (The Leonard Lopate Show)
ACLU Sues U.S. – CBC Radio (The Current)
ACLU Pushes For Answers On Drone Strikes
– NPR (Morning Edition)

Online
Sensenbrenner wants tweaks to his own Patriot Act – MSNBC
NSA violated the law and misled its court chaperone – MSNBC
N.S.A. Often Broke Rules on Privacy, Audit Shows – The New York Times
Former judge admits flaws with secret FISA courtCBS News
Sources: US intelligence agencies tap servers of top Internet companies
– NBC News
NSA data-gathering deja vu for privacy hawksCBS News

Articles by this author:

President Donald J Trump speaks with reporters and signs executive orders in the Oval Office
Participants hold up signs in support of TikTok
The words "Freedom of the Press" appear over the U.S. Constitution and next to a wooden gavel.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew testifies before the House Energy and Commerce Committee in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill on March 23, 2023 in Washington, DC.
Supreme Court Building
Side by side images of the speakers from the event “Roads Not Taken – Reflections on the 9/11 Anniversary” hosted by Just Security and the Knight First Amendment Institute. Jameel Jaffer, Elisa Massimino, Anthony D. Romero, Kenneth Roth, and Linda Sarsour.
Two tall greyscale rectangles cast dark shadows representing the Twin Towers. Text reads, “How Perpetual War Has Changed Us: Reflections on the 20th Anniversary of 9/11”
CIA Director John Brennan and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, arrive to testify during a US House Committee on Intelligence hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, September 10, 2015.
People cross the street near a protest sign reading "Khashoggi way" across the street from the White House in Washington, DC, on December 23, 2018.
Julian Assange gestures to the media from a police vehicle on his arrival at Westminster Magistrates court on April 11, 2019 in London, England.
Redacted text on a sheet of paper.
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