Gregory T. Nojeim Appointed Associate Director Of ACLU Washington National Office

WASHINGTON – After serving as a Legislative Counsel for six years, Gregory T. Nojeim has been appointed Associate Director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Washington National Office.

As Associate Director, Nojeim will act as Chief Legislative Council and the office’s second in command. In addition to continuing to work on several pieces of legislation, Nojeim will supervise the office’s overall legislative efforts and serve as an integral member of the management team.

Laura W. Murphy, Director of the ACLU’s Washington National Office, announced the appointment, citing the impending legislative struggle faced by the Washington Office in the upcoming months.

“Greg has been an amazing asset for our lobbying efforts in this office and I look forward to his continued success in this broader arena,” Murphy said. “At a time when the anti-civil libertarian agendas of the Bush Administration and Congress threaten our rights and liberties as never before, I am confident that Greg will serve as an effective leader for our staff and office.”

As Legislative Counsel, Nojeim was responsible for defending and promoting civil liberties in the areas of national security, immigration and database privacy. He has long fought against “aviation profiling,” a discriminatory and ineffective method of selecting certain passengers for heightened security.

Nojeim has testified against such systems before Congress and before the White House Commission on Aviation Safety and Security, and has served on the Commission’s civil liberties advisory panel. Most recently, he has spearheaded the ACLU’s efforts to ensure that arriving passengers are not subjected to strip searches by the U.S. Customs Service on a discriminatory basis or without adequate suspicion or the approval of a judicial magistrate.

Nojeim has also testified before Congressional committees about the civil liberties implications of anti-terrorism legislation, anti-militia legislation, and immigration-related proposals to create a national identification system that would include a government-controlled electronic file on every American. Nojeim directed the ACLU’s legislative efforts in the “Fix ’96” campaign to restore to non-citizens the due process rights — including the right to judicial review and to see any evidence being used against them — that were taken away in the 1996 immigration and anti-terrorism laws.