Anthony D. Romero

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Anthony Romero
6th Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union
Assumed office
2001
Preceded byIra Glasser
Personal details
Born (1965-07-09) July 9, 1965 (age 58)
New York City, U.S.
EducationPrinceton University (BA)
Stanford University (JD)

Anthony D. Romero (born July 9, 1965) is an American lawyer who serves as the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union. He assumed the position in 2001 as the first Latino and openly gay man to do so.

Early life and education

Romero was born in Bronx, New York city on July 9, 1965, to

labor union he belonged to, hoping to file a grievance against his employer. He won the case, which allowed for him to seek out better paying work and later allowed for the family to improve their standard of living. The family subsequently moved to suburban New Jersey, where Anthony graduated high school.[1][2][3]

Romero was the first member of his family to graduate from high school. He received his B.A. degree from

New York bar. He was a Dinkelspiel Scholar at Stanford University, a Cane Scholar at Princeton, and a National Hispanic Scholar at both institutions.[1][2][3]

Early career

Romero started his career at the

LGBT rights.[6][7]

American Civil Liberties Union

Anthony Romero became executive director in September 2001, just before the

September 11, 2001, attacks. He is the first openly gay man and the first Hispanic director of the civil liberties institution.[8]

After the September 11th attacks, Romero launched a national campaign called "Keep America Safe and Free" to protect American civil liberties and basic freedoms during a time of crisis in the United States. The campaign successfully targeted the

War on Terror".[10] Discussing the Bush administration, Romero said that the "eight years of President Bush will go down in history as one of the darkest moments in America's commitment to human rights".[11]

Amidst 9/11 related concerns, ACLU membership, which had hovered around 300,000 for decades, increased to 573,000 following the terror attacks and subsequent legislation established during the Bush administration. Total donations to the ACLU doubled to more than twice the 2001 budget, increasing to about $28 million per year in the years following. Upon Romero's arrival, he increased the number of ACLU staff from 186 to 379 in 2001 alone. He also raised the salaries of staff members to be more in line with industry standards, in some cases increasing salaries by as much as 86%. In each of the ACLU's national affiliate offices, Romero hired and placed at least one staff attorney.[12]

The ACLU's massive growth under Romero's leadership allowed for the organization to expand its activities with regard to racial justice, religious freedom, privacy rights, reproductive freedom, and LGBT rights. In recent years, this has enabled the organization to create a new Human Rights program as well as a division dedicated to privacy issues arising from new surveillance technology, including data mining and the collection of genetic data.[12]

In 2007, Romero and the ACLU denounced the Pentagon for monitoring 186 antiwar protests and keeping files on pacifist groups, from Veterans for Peace to the Catholic Worker Movement.[13]

Romero spoke at the March for Women's Lives in
March for Women's Lives in Washington, D.C., advocating for the legality of abortion
.

In 2013, Romero, on behalf of the ACLU organization, praised Edward Snowden for his whistleblowing action against the NSA.[14]

In 2016, Romero co-signed a letter to

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon calling for a more humane drug policy, along with people like Eve Ensler, Norman Lear, and Ernesto Zedillo.[15]

Criticisms

During the course of his time with the ACLU, Romero has come under fire by other leaders within the organization, including board members and his predecessor, Ira Glasser. Their complaints have included assertions of his dishonesty and lack of integrity in the context of the workplace and with regard to the ACLU's work. His critics within the ACLU have launched websites such as savetheaclu.org and voicesfortheaclu.org, reporting that he "has betrayed fundamental ACLU values".[13][16]

In 2002, Romero signed a consent decree the

New York Attorney General at the time, Eliot Spitzer, to settle a privacy breach that had been discovered on the ACLU website. Although an outside company was responsible for the breach, Spitzer's office had demanded $10,000 from the ACLU for the error, which would later be reimbursed by the outside company directly responsible. However, as designated in the decree, Romero was required to distribute the decree itself to the national ACLU board within 30 days. Instead, he waited 6 months to do so, when he reportedly "offered vague and inconsistent explanations of the circumstances surrounding the negotiation, execution, and eventual distribution of the agreement".[13][16]

In 2004, Romero received criticism for signing two agreements without the consent or approval of the larger ACLU leadership council. Most notable of the two was his signing of the Combined Federal Campaign, a government program that allows federal employees to allocate funds to charities and nonprofits that do not "knowingly employ" people found on federal and international antiterrorism watch lists. Fellow leadership did not approve of this partnership and were forced to withdraw from the program, a move that cost the organization roughly $500,000.[13][16]

On June 26, 2011, Romero was charged with a DWI after being seen "careening into oncoming traffic" by police. His arrest was not included in any weekly press releases of DWI charges that week and was not made public until it was published in the New York Post on August 10, nearly two months later. Police claim to have inadvertently omitted Romero's arrest. However, critics suggested that the omission was no accident.[17]

Works authored by Romero

  • In Defense of Our America: The Fight for Civil Liberties in the Age of Terror. William Morrow, 2007.
    ISBN 0-06-114256-5
    .

Recognition

In 2005, he was named one of Time magazine's 25 Most Influential Hispanics.

In 2009, he received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement presented by Awards Council member Archbishop Desmond Tutu at an awards ceremony at St. George’s Cathedral in Cape Town, South Africa.[18][19]

In 2011, Romero received the

"Maggie" Award, highest honor of the Planned Parenthood Federation, in tribute to their founder, Margaret Sanger
.

He was featured in the HBO documentary The Latino List.[20]

Romero is the recipient of the 2020 Woodrow Wilson Award from Princeton University.[21][22][23]

References

  1. ^
    American Academy of Achievement
    .
  2. ^ a b "Interview with Anthony Romero". PBS. Retrieved July 10, 2016.
  3. ^ a b c "Anthony D. Romero". ACLU. Retrieved July 10, 2016.
  4. ^ Romero, Anthony David. Colombian Migration and Political Participation in the United States (Thesis). Princeton University.
  5. ^ "Anthony Romero '90 Keynotes Conference". Stanford Law School. February 2006. Retrieved March 8, 2021.
  6. ^ a b "Anthony D. Romero Is New ACLU Director; First Latino to Head Premier Civil Liberties Group". ACLU. Retrieved July 10, 2016.
  7. ^ Burnett III, James (December 25, 2012). "Defending Civil Liberties is Rarely a Model Union". Boston Globe. Retrieved July 10, 2016.
  8. ^ "Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director". American Civil Liberties Union. Retrieved May 9, 2015.
  9. ^ "Sustaining Democratic Life: An Interview With the ACLU's Anthony Romero". NewPolitics. May 27, 2010. Retrieved July 10, 2016.
  10. ^ "Feds appeal ruling against wiretap program" (August 18, 2006). NBC News news services. Retrieved May 9, 2015.
  11. ^ Romero, Anthony (2008). "Interview with Anthony Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)". Sur – Revista Internacional de Direitos Humanos. 4 (9): 172–181.
  12. ^ a b France, David (October 24, 2007). "Freedom to Backstab", screen 2. New York. Retrieved May 9, 2015.
  13. ^ a b c d "Freedom to Backstab". NY Mag. February 9, 2007.
  14. ^ ""Edward Snowden Has Done This Country a Service": ACLU Praises Leaker for Kick-Starting NSA Debate". Democracy Now.
  15. ^ "A Public Letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon". Drug Policy Alliance. Archived from the original on August 17, 2016. Retrieved April 15, 2016.
  16. ^ a b c "ACLU v. ACLU". The Nation.
  17. ^ "Hypocrisy at the ACLU". The Atlantic. August 11, 2011.
  18. American Academy of Achievement
    .
  19. ^ "Anthony Romero Biography Photo". Awards Council member Archbishop Desmond Tutu presenting Anthony Romero with the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement at the 2009 International Achievement Summit in Cape Town, South Africa.
  20. ^ "Documentaries Catalog". HBO. Retrieved March 8, 2021.
  21. ^ "U. to present Romero '87, Thorne GS '65 with top alumni awards". The Princetonian. Retrieved March 8, 2021.
  22. ^ "Civil liberties leader Romero, physics Nobel laureate Thorne to receive top alumni awards". Princeton University. Retrieved March 8, 2021.
  23. ^ "ACLU's Anthony Romero '87 wins Woodrow Wilson Award, says prize's namesake would be 'spinning in his grave'". The Princetonian. Retrieved March 8, 2021.

External links

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