Professor Ruth Colker recently was elected to the national executive committee of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Colker’s term on the executive committee will start in January 2024. She currently serves as an at-large member of the ACLU National Board of Directors, a position she has held since January 2014 and has been reelected to three times. She will serve on both the executive committee and national board of directors until December 2025.  

Although Colker is new to the executive committee, she has long been involved with the ACLU. She has been a volunteer pro bono lawyer with the organization since 1985. While living in New Orleans in the late 1980s, she brought some of the first AIDS-related litigation and defended abortion centers from trespass action by Operation Rescue – work for which she won the Louisiana Volunteer Attorney of the Year. 

The ACLU’s National Board includes 18 at-large members chosen for their expertise in an area in which the ACLU is underrepresented. Colker was first asked to run for the national board because of her expertise in disability rights law. She hopes to bring this expertise to the executive committee as well and help find ways to make the organization even more disability inclusive. 

As a member of the executive committee, Colker will also have a part in the financial monitoring of the organization. The ACLU has a large annual budget and more than 1.5 million members, so the committee performs important oversight. Colker is looking forward to learning and being more involved with the day-to-day operations of the organization. 

Colker is a Distinguished University Professor and the Heck Faust Memorial Chair in Constitutional Law at Ohio State Law. Read her bio here.