Anthony D. Romero | American Civil Liberties Union

Anthony D. Romero is the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, the nation’s premier defender of civil liberties. He took the helm of the organization just seven days before the September 11, 2001 attacks. Romero has been the longest-serving head of the 105-year-old organization since its founder, Roger Baldwin, stepped down in 1950.

Throughout his 23-year tenure, Romero has built the ACLU into a legal, political and advocacy juggernaut. He has presided over the most successful growth in the ACLU’s history – growing the organization twelvefold and making it the largest and most impactful legal and advocacy organization in the United States.

Under Romero’s leadership, the ACLU has pursued aggressive litigation and advocacy around the greatest injustices of our time, including: challenges to the war on terror and fighting to close Guantánamo; protecting the right to free speech—regardless of ideology—across the internet and social media platforms, in classrooms and on campuses, and in the public square; combating racial disparities within the criminal justice system, reducing mass incarceration, and advocating for the commutation of federal death sentences; winning the freedom to marry for same-sex couples and ensuring federal civil rights protections for LGBTQ workers; and fighting assaults on transgender rights and dignity. The ACLU brought 434 legal actions during the first Trump Administration and Romero has vowed to do the same, if necessary, during President Trump’s second term.

Romero revamped and scaled the ACLU’s political program, resulting in winning ballot referenda to protect abortion rights for millions across the nation; and the launch of the ACLU’s first political action committee—the ACLU Voter Education Fund—in 2024. He also launched a nationwide Systemic Equality campaign for racial justice.

With a staffed presence in every state, and covering the waterfront of issues from free speech, abortion rights, immigrants’ rights, racial justice, LGBTQ rights, and racial justice, among other issues, the ACLU stands alone in its commitment to defending the rights and liberties of all people in the United States. A nonpartisan organization, the ACLU advances civil liberties and civil rights without respect to political affiliation and holds Democratic and Republican leaders alike accountable to the Constitution.

Romero is the ACLU’s sixth executive director and the first Latino and openly gay man to serve in that capacity.

Romero’s parents hailed from Puerto Rico, and he was the first in his family to graduate from high school. A graduate of Stanford University Law School and the Princeton University School of Public Policy and International Affairs, he has served on numerous nonprofit boards and is currently a Trustee of Princeton University.