Quick Facts
Biography
Susan N. Herman (born 1947) is an American constitutional law scholar and, since October of 2008, the president of the American Civil Liberties Union. Herman has taught at Brooklyn Law School since 1980.
Early years and education
Herman was born in Brooklyn and raised on Long Island. Herman earned a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from Barnard College in 1968. She then earned a Juris Doctor from the New York University School of Law, where she served as note and comment editor for the New York University Law Review.
Herman served as pro se law clerk for the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. She was a staff attorney and later associate director for Prisoners' Legal Services of New York.
Career
Herman currently teaches constitutional law and criminal procedure, seminars on law and literature, and terrorism and civil liberties.She began working for the ACLU as an intern in law school.When she was elected president, Herman was the organization's general counsel and had served on its board for 20 years.
Herman's book Taking Liberties: the War on Terror and the Erosion of American Democracy was published by Oxford University Press in October 2011.
Herman has appeared as a guest on NPR, PBS, C-SPAN, NBC News, and MSNBC. She has written opinion columns for The New York Times, Time, Newsday, and HuffPost.