Legal Intern

About the Role

The ACLU seeks a Summer Legal Intern in the Voting Rights Project of the ACLU’s National office in New York City or Washington D.C. This position can be remote or hybrid.

Qualifying applicants must currently be matriculated legal students and must be based in the U.S. for the entire duration of the internship.

The Team:

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 400 cases since that time. Its mission is to build and defend an accessible, inclusive, and equitable democracy free from racial discrimination. We have three guiding 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 is litigation-focused, with active cases across the country, though it helps support legislative advocacy work and public education. The Voting Rights Project’s recent docket has included more than 40 lawsuits to protect voters during the 2020 and 2024 elections; 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 voter purges and documentary proof of citizenship laws; challenges to other new legislation restricting voting rights in states like Georgia, Montana, and Texas; and challenges to unfair redistricting plans in state likes Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, Arkansas, South Carolina, and Mississippi. The Project also helps support voting rights litigation brought by ACLU affiliates across the country.

What You’ll Do:

Interns provide critical support to our team in litigation and other forms of advocacy. In the recent past, interns have served as integral members on our teams doing election protection work and litigating redistricting and voter suppression cases; pushing back against the addition of a citizenship question on the 2020 Census; working to prevent the Florida legislature from imposing financial barriers that would undermine voter-approved Amendment 4, which re-enfranchised many citizens with felony convictions; and helping to investigate and initiate redistricting litigation.

Our team in Washington, D.C. focuses specifically on litigation under the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA). The NVRA is a law that enables eligible voters to simultaneously register to vote when they apply for, or renew, a drivers' license; offers voter registration opportunities in public assistance and disability services agencies; and improves mail-in voter registration application opportunities. One intern will be focused specifically on the NVRA with the option to work on a hybrid basis in the New York or DC office. Please specify in your cover letter if you are interested in being considered for our NVRA internship, our general VRP internship, or both.

Your Day to Day:

Interns will gain valuable experience by working with the team on a wide variety of issues. Responsibilities for interns include:  

• Conduct legal research and analysis to support new and active litigation projects
• Aid in drafting of legal memoranda, pleadings, affidavits, motions, and briefs
• Draft and edit public education and non-litigation advocacy materials
• Provide support and assistance to ACLU affiliates and cooperating attorneys
• Potential to work closely with clients and participate in outreach with impacted communities, discovery, and trial practice.

What You'll Bring:

The internship is open to students who are in law school who have completed their 1L year or are in an LLM program. Interns should possess the following:  

• Completion of 1L year of law school by summer 2026 or enrollment in an LLM program
• Excellent research skills, including conducting internet and legal database research
• Excellent communication skills, both verbal and writing
• Attention to detail and excellent organizing and time-management skills
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite
• The initiative to see projects through to completion
• Demonstrated commitment to public interest law, civil liberties, and racial justice
• Demonstrated ability to conduct complex legal analysis and fact finding

Future ACLU'ers Will:

• 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

Internship Logistics

• Location: Our internship program offers a limited number of remote or hybrid intern positions. This internship may be remote or hybrid and based in our New York City or Washington DC office.
• Time Commitment: Summer internships require a full time (35 hour/week) commitment.
• Internship Duration: Summer internships span 10 consecutive weeks with a start date of May 26 or June 8.
• Stipend: A stipend is available for those students who are lawfully authorized to work. Legal interns receive a stipend amount $24/hour (stipends are taxed)

Priority Application Deadline: October 31, 2025

While there is a priority deadline, our project is committed to reviewing all applications on a rolling basis until the closing of posting.

Why the ACLU

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. 

Our Commitment to Accessibility, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion

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 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 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 [email protected]. If you are selected for an interview, you will receive additional information regarding how to request accommodations for the interview process.

In order to be considered for this position, all candidates must formally submit an application. The ACLU does not accept unsolicited calls or emails from candidates regarding their application status.