Gelernt is lead counsel and will argue the Ninth Circuit merits appeal in December 2019. The Supreme Court has allowed the ban to go into effect temporarily pending the outcome of the merits of the case. In August 2019, a San Francisco federal district court issued a preliminary injunction enjoining the ban. A challenge to the Administration’s second asylum ban (the transit ban).In June 2018, a federal court in San Diego issued an injunction holding the practice unconstitutional and requiring the Administration to reunite the approximately 3,000 separated families, which included babies and toddlers. A national class action involving the Trump Administration’s unprecedented practice of separating immigrant families at the border.The first case challenging the president’s January 2017 travel ban on individuals from certain Muslim-majority nations, even those with valid visas, which resulted in a federal court in Brooklyn issuing a nationwide Saturday night injunction against the ban, one day after the president enacted it.Gelernt has argued some of the most high profile cases involving Trump Administration policies, including: He has argued dozens of groundbreaking civil rights cases at all levels of the federal court system, including in the United States Supreme Court, and has testified as an expert before both houses of Congress.ĭuring the past two years, Mr. Gelernt has won numerous awards for his work and is widely recognized as one of the 500 leading lawyers in the nation in any field, a list that contains only a handful of public interest attorneys. He currently holds the positions of Deputy Director of the national Immigrants’ Rights Project and Director of the Project’s national Access to the Courts Program. Lee Gelernt has been a lawyer at the ACLU's national office in New York since 1992. To see more information on our winners, use the links below. The first award was bestowed to a graduate of Horace Mann in 1939 and it has since become a well-recognized and anticipated event and honor every year.Īmong our award winners are Pulitzer Prize winners, artists, poets, writers, scientists, entertainers, inventors, lawyers, judges, and many more outstanding individuals. The Alumni Association's Award for Distinguished Achievement is chosen each year by the Alumni Council, on behalf of the Alumni Association, in order to honor a graduate who exemplifies distinguished achievement in his or her chosen profession or accomplishments.