Trying Times for Civil Liberties Lawyer
Life as a civil liberties lawyer isn’t easy for Christopher Dunn, who focuses on First Amendment issues as associate legal director for the New York Civil Liberties Union.
He says the government has been trampling free speech and assembly rights through policies such as secret surveillance and mass detentions of political demonstrators, the New York Times reports in a profile. He acknowledges terrorism is a legitimate concern, but says too often it’s used as an excuse to interfere with legitimate political activity.
Despite one recent win, the Times reports that Dunn appears “a touch irritable, defensive even.” A federal judge on Monday ordered release of police surveillance information on demonstrators arrested at the 2004 Republican National Convention.
“These are dark times for civil liberties,” he told the Times. “We’re living in an era of law enforcement supremacy, and the courts are often our last line of defense.”
