PHOTO: Mike zamore ’93

The ACLU has long been bipartisan, famously fighting on behalf of a neo-Nazi group’s right to march in the 1970s, and even last year defending the National Rifle Association before the Supreme Court. “We just happen to be in an environment right now where the most prominent threats to freedom of speech and equality are coming from a Republican administration,” says Zamore. He and his team have pushed back on lack of due process in immigration cases by organizing a high-profile visit of lawmakers to detention facilities and have combatted the Trump administration’s targeting of universities, law firms, and state governments by helping them forge coalitions to fight back in media and the courts. “It’s given me the opportunity to work on all the issues I’m most passionate about—how we ensure people are treated with dignity and have equal opportunity.”

Zamore was first inspired to enter politics while at Brown, after an internship in Washington, D.C. It was time working with a development company in post-communist Russia, however, that convinced him what’s really at stake in government. “As an American, you grow up assuming you can count on the rule of law,” he says. “Coming back, it motivated me to ensure we have a society that lives up to our lofty promises and ideals.”

“A lot of what we are doing is trying to ensure the worst stuff doesn’t pass,” Zamore admits. He says he has been doing what he can to leverage Democrats’ ability to block administration attacks on civil liberties, working to ensure that Republican lawmakers hear from constituents.

“Ultimately this is a fight that will be won in the court of public opinion,” he says. “And because courage is contagious, you have to be working in solidarity to show others there is a path to say ‘No.’”