Legal Intern - Disability Rights Program, Veterans' Rights

About the Role

The ACLU seeks a Summer Legal Intern focusing on Veterans' Rights in the Disability Rights Program of the ACLU’s National office in Washington D.C. or San Francisco, CA. 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 Disability Rights Program’s mission is to achieve an America free of discrimination against people with disabilities; where people with disabilities are valued, integrated members of society who have full access to education, homes, health care, jobs, families, voting and civic engagement. We fight to ensure that people with disabilities are no longer segregated into, and over-represented in, civil and criminal institutions such as nursing homes, psychiatric hospitals, jails, and prisons.

The ACLU has fought for decades for the rights of people with disabilities - achieving key wins to stop coerced mental health treatment and unnecessary institutionalization, as well as playing a role in the drafting of the ADA. DRP litigates and advocates to use disability rights laws to end the overrepresentation of people with disabilities in the criminal legal system, including pursuing first of its kind litigation to ensure that municipalities provide trained, non-police responders to people experiencing mental health crises. We also litigate and advocate to promote alternatives to guardianship and to secure equal access to the ballot. We also provide support to affiliates and the National office on disability rights issues that intersect with core civil liberties.

The ACLU has recently strengthened its work at the intersection of disability, veterans’ rights, and civil liberties. This internship focuses specifically on this emerging area of work.

What You’ll Do:

This position will work primarily on DRP’s veterans’ docket. Specifically, the intern will work on litigation and advocacy at the intersection of disability rights, civil liberties, and the rights of servicemembers and veterans.   

The intern will have the opportunity to gain valuable experience by working alongside the team and assisting in legal research and writing, factual investigation, and strategic advocacy to advance our litigation and integrated advocacy. The intern will have the opportunity to participate in litigation, advocacy, and internal meetings and discussions.

Your Day to Day:

Interns will support DRP litigation work and integrated advocacy across our priority areas:

• Legal research
• Legal writing, such as memos and portions of court submissions
• Fact investigation
• Support in preparation for and during court cases, such as depositions, oral argument, hearings, or trial

What You'll Bring:

The internship is open only to students enrolled at U.S. law schools who will have completed at least one year of law school before the internship commences. 

Additionally, interns should possess the following:

• Excellent research skills, including conducting internet and legal database research
• Excellent communication skills, both verbal and writing
• Attention to detail, excellent organizing and time-management skills
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite
• The initiative to see projects through to completion

We invite applications from candidates who have personal, professional, and/or academic experience in the military, including candidates who are veterans or servicemembers. We further invite applications from candidates who have personal, professional, and/or academic experience with disability and disability rights, including candidates who have disabilities. 

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 Washington DC or San Francisco, CA office.
• Time Commitment: Summer internships require a full time (35 hour/week) commitment for 10 consecutive weeks.
• Internship Duration: This internship has a start date of May 24 or June 7.
• Stipend: A stipend is available for those students who are lawfully authorized to work. Students who receive outside funding are eligible for a partial stipend to bring their total funding up to the level of the ACLU’s stipend amount for the summer. Legal interns receive a stipend amount of $24/hour (stipends are taxed)

Priority Application Deadline: October 30

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 complete the Accommodation Request Form

If you are selected for an interview, you will receive additional information regarding how to request an accommodation 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.

ACLU’s internship program is supported in part by the Arnie Miller Fund for the Next Generation: The Arnie Miller Fund For The Next Generation | American Civil Liberties Union.