Ahead of the new documentary The Fight releasing nationwide on July 31st, Intercept Editor-in-Chief Betsy Reed will moderate a conversation with the featured lawyers on civil rights in the Trump era.
On Wednesday, July 29th, at 3 p.m. ET, Intercept Editor-in-Chief Betsy Reed will host a virtual conversation on the current state of civil rights in the Trump era with three American Civil Liberties Union lawyers at the center of these fights: Brigitte Amiri, deputy director at the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project; Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project; and Chase Strangio, deputy director for Transgender Justice with the ACLU LGBT & HIV Project.
The conversation coincides with the upcoming release of the new documentary The Fight, an inside look at four high-profile ACLU lawsuits that attempt to block the Trump administration’s efforts to target immigrants, women, and the LGBTQ community. The film, directed by Eli B. Despres, Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg, is being released by Magnolia Pictures and Topic Studios and will be available in theaters and on demand on July 31st.
From the early days of his administration, President Donald Trump has overseen a barrage of legislative attacks on marginalized communities: ripping immigrant families apart, blocking access to abortion, and banning transgender people from military service. As grassroots movements responded to these attacks with unprecedented protests, the legal team at the ACLU launched more than 150 lawsuits aimed at protecting our civil rights and liberties from encroaching authoritarianism.
This event will be streamed live on The Intercept, as well as on The Intercept’s official YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter pages.
Bios
Betsy Reed became Editor-in-Chief of The Intercept in 2015. Since then, The Intercept has earned many awards — and millions of readers — with its fearless reporting on a range of issues, from war, surveillance, and U.S. politics to the environment, technology, prisons, the death penalty, the media, and more.
Among the awards The Intercept has won under Reed’s tenure are a George Polk Award, a National Magazine Award, a Sidney Hillman Prize, the Innocence Network Journalism Award, and an Edward R. Murrow Award. The Intercept Brasil, launched in 2016, has achieved wide recognition for its groundbreaking journalism in Brazil. Prior to joining The Intercept, Reed was executive editor of The Nation, where she led the magazine’s investigative coverage while also editing and writing political commentary.
Brigitte Amiri is a deputy director at the ACLU’s Reproductive Freedom Project. She is currently litigating numerous cases, including leading the Jane Doe case, challenging the Trump administration’s ban on abortion for unaccompanied immigrant minors. She also represents the last abortion clinic in Kentucky and is lead counsel in a challenge to Kentucky’s six-week abortion ban and another challenge against the state’s attempts to close the clinic’s doors. Ms. Amiri also leads the project’s efforts to ensure that religious objections are not used to discriminate against or harm people seeking access to reproductive health care.
Lee Gelernt is the deputy director of the ACLU’s national Immigrants’ Rights Project and director of the Project’s Access to the Court’s Program. He has argued many of the highest profile challenges to the Trump Administration’s immigration policies, including its family separation practice. He is widely considered one of the nation’s leading public interest lawyers and has been recognized as one of the top 500 lawyers in the country in any field. Lee has argued dozens of groundbreaking cases throughout the country, including in the U.S. Supreme Court, where he will again be arguing in March on behalf of asylum seekers.
Chase Strangio is the deputy director for Transgender Justice with the ACLU’s LGBT & HIV Project and a nationally recognized expert on trans rights. He is counsel in the ACLU’s challenge to North Carolina’s notorious anti-trans law, HB2, Carcaño, et al. v. Cooper, et al, the ACLU’s challenge to Trump’s trans military ban, Stone v. Trump, and the case of Aimee Stephens, R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes v. EEOC, which is pending before the Supreme Court. He was counsel to whistleblower Chelsea Manning in her lawsuit against the Department of Defense for discriminatory denial of health treatment while in custody and worked with the team defending the rights of transgender student, Gavin Grimm, before the Supreme Court. He also appears regularly in the media and lobbies in state legislatures around the country on issues impacting trans and nonbinary people.