Bio
Emerson is a senior staff attorney with the ACLU Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project where he focuses on First Amendment free speech protections. From 2019-2020, he was also host of At Liberty, the ACLU’s weekly podcast.
Prior to joining the ACLU in 2018, he was a legal advisor for Africa at the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ICNL). In that role, he provided technical legal assistance to civil society leaders, government officials, law students, and other stakeholders from across Africa to improve the legal framework protecting the freedom of association, assembly, and expression on the regional and national levels. From 2012-13, he served as assistant general counsel to the New York City Council, where he worked to increase transparency for council members’ discretionary spending, and contributed to the council’s friend-of-the-court brief against the NYPD’s “Stop and Frisk” program. In 2011, Emerson was a senior policy fellow in the office of a Member of Parliament in Ghana. Emerson previously conducted research and wrote about U.S. foreign policy for The Century Foundation, a progressive think tank, and worked for the National Democratic Institute’s Central and West Africa Team.
Emerson holds a J.D. from the New York University School of Law, where he was a Root-Tilden-Kern scholar for public interest law, and a Master of Public Affairs degree from the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs. He earned his undergraduate degree in political science at Stanford.
Featured work
![A photo of Peppermint.](https://assets.aclu.org/live/uploads/2023/01/Peppermint_Square-400x266.jpg)
Jan 12, 2023
The Dangers of Drag Censorship with Peppermint
![](https://assets.aclu.org/live/uploads/2022/02/SCHOOLS-TEACHING-RACE-400x266.jpg)
Feb 3, 2022
The Movement to Erase Black History and Culture
![selective soft and blur focus.old wooden row lecture chairs in classroom in poor school.study room without student.](https://assets.aclu.org/live/uploads/2021/05/Web21-critical-race-theory_Blog-Wordpress-1110x740-1-400x266.jpg)
May 14, 2021
State Lawmakers Are Trying to Ban Talk About Race in Schools
![Artist The Weeknd sings into a microphone on stage at Super Bowl 55](https://assets.aclu.org/live/uploads/2021/02/Prison-Music-Contraband-Header-Image-400x266.jpg)
Feb 18, 2021
The Weeknd's Music is Safe Enough for the Super Bowl, but Contraband in Prison
![Silhouette of a rapper onstage with bright stage light and smoke in the background.](https://assets.aclu.org/live/uploads/2020/10/WEB20-Rapper-Onstage-WordPress-1110x740-1-400x266.jpg)
Nov 9, 2020
Putting Rap Lyrics on Trial is a Violation of Free Speech
![An incarcerated person thumbs through a book](https://assets.aclu.org/live/uploads/2019/09/web19-incarcerated-person-reading-socialshare-1160x768-400x266.jpg)
May 16, 2019
Arizona Officials Say It’s Unsafe for Prisoners to Read About Race and Criminal Justice. They're Wrong.
![Oceti Sakowin Camp water protectors](https://assets.aclu.org/live/uploads/2019/09/web19-oceti-sakowin-camp-1160x768-400x266.jpg)
Mar 20, 2019
The Government Is Hiding Its Plans for Anti-Pipeline Protests
![Free speech zone sign in front of statue](https://assets.aclu.org/live/uploads/2019/09/web19-free-speech-zone-1160x768-400x266.jpg)
Feb 7, 2019
When Colleges Confine Free Speech to a ‘Zone,’ It Isn’t Free
![Trump Podium](https://assets.aclu.org/live/uploads/2019/09/web18-trumppodium-1160x768-400x266.jpg)
Oct 17, 2018
Why Trump's Stormy Daniels Tweet Wasn't Defamation