In this episode, Julian Zelizer discusses the threats posed to civil liberties since the 9/11 attacks with guest Anthony Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union.
Romero argues that current threats to civil liberties are not a product of the Donald Trump presidency, but are instead a new data point on a larger path of expanded executive power in American government. He outlines efforts the ACLU has undertaken under his leadership to defend civil liberties and explains the rationale underlying the ACLU’s current opposition to Trump’s invocation of a national emergency on the southern border.
Romero received his undergraduate degree from Princeton University in 1987. He took the helm of the ACLU just a few days before the 9/11 attacks. Under his leadership, the ACLU has undertaken several initiatives including the Keep America Safe and Free Campaign, the ACLU’s national security project, which achieved many legal victories on the Patriot Act.
ABOUT THE HOSTS
Zelizer has been among the pioneers in the revival of American political history. He is the Malcolm Stevenson Forbes, Class of 1941 Professor of History and Public Affairs at Princeton University and a CNN political analyst. He has written more than 900 op-eds, including his popular weekly column for CNN.com and The Atlantic. This year, he is the distinguished senior fellow at the New York Historical Society, where he is writing a biography of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel for Yale University's Jewish Lives Series. He is the author and editor of more than 19 books including, “The Fierce Urgency of Now: Lyndon Johnson, Congress, and the Battle for the Great Society,” the winner of the D.B. Hardeman Prize for the Best Book on Congress. In January 2019, Norton will publish his new book, co-authored with Kevin Kruse, “Fault Lines: A History of the United States Since 1974.” In spring 2020, Penguin Press will publish his other book, “Burning Down the House: Newt Gingrich, The Fall of a Speaker, and the Rise of the New Republican Party.” He has received fellowships from the Brookings Institution, the Guggenheim Foundation, the Russell Sage Foundation and New America