Summer 2027 Legal Intern, Trone Center for Justice and Equality

About the Role

The ACLU seeks a  Summer   Legal Intern in the Legal Department’s Trone Center for Justice and Equality   of the ACLU’s National office in  Washington DC.  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’s Trone Center for Justice and Equality leads cutting edge litigation focused on combatting inequity, oppression and dehumanization in the criminal legal system and systemic inequalities faced by communities of color across the country. The Center is comprised of five Projects/Programs working on these issues: the Capital Punishment Project, the National Prison Project, the Racial Justice Program, the Criminal Law Reform Project, and the John Adams Project. The Trone Center also leads the ACLU's work on unhoused justice, which focuses on challenging laws and practices that criminalize homelessness and protecting the rights of unhoused individuals.

What You’ll Do:

 

The Trone Center for Justice and Equality is seeking a law student intern to work on the issues it addresses, including the following: combatting the criminalization of homelessness and protecting the rights of unhoused individuals, seeking to end excessively harsh criminal justice policies that result in mass incarceration, over-criminalization, and racial injustice; fighting for nationwide reforms to pretrial detention and surveillance, police practices, public defense systems, disproportionate sentencing and prosecutorial abuses of authority in the name of public safety; challenging the unfairness and arbitrariness of capital punishment while working towards the ultimate goal of abolishing the death penalty; improving conditions for people in prisons, jails, and detention centers and increasing oversight and accountability in places of detention; and confronting racial discrimination in education, housing, fair lending, policing, and the criminal justice system. The intern will be responsible for conducting legal research and writing support to the Center Director and Staff Attorney. The intern will also work collaboratively with various ACLU projects and affiliates on litigation and advocacy related to unhoused justice, racial justice, and criminal legal system change.

 

Your Day to Day:

What You'll Bring:

This Internship is open to law students who will have completed their first year of law school before the internship commences. Interns should possess the following:

Future ACLU'ers Will:

Internship Logistics

Priority Application Deadline: November 30th, 2027

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.  

To maintain the integrity of our assessment process, please refrain from using AI-powered chatbots, search engines, or real-time assistance tools to generate your CV, cover letter or writing sample (if required). We want to better understand your individual skills and thought processes. If you require AI tools or other assistive technology as a reasonable accommodation due to a disability, please complete the Accommodation Request Form  so that we can support an accessible and equitable experience.

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.