Caroline Fredrickson, Director of the Washington Legislative Office

ACLU Announces New Director of Washington Legislative Office: Caroline Fredrickson to Be ACLU's Top Lobbyist

Caroline Fredrickson is the director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Washington Legislative Office. As director, Fredrickson leads all federal lobbying for the national ACLU, the nation's oldest and largest civil liberties organization. She is also the organization’s top lobbyist, and supervises the 50-person Washington legislative team in promoting ACLU priorities in Congress, the White House and federal agencies.

Fredrickson leads the ACLU’s Washington Legislative Office at a critical juncture for civil liberties, when groups and individuals on both the left and the right are fighting to defend our fundamental freedoms from invasive security measures that make America neither safe nor free. She spearheads the ACLU’s outreach to conservative civil libertarians, and works closely with the ACLU’s conservative allies, such as former Congressman Bob Barr (R-Georgia) from Georgia and David Keene of the American Conservative Union, on privacy and national security issues.

Caroline Fredrickson at the 2006 Membership Conference

Prior to joining the ACLU, Fredrickson was the general counsel and legal director for NARAL Pro-Choice America. Fredrickson also has years of experience as a senior staffer on Capitol Hill. She served as Chief of Staff for Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Washington), developing the Senator’s legislative and press strategies, and participating in Cantwell’s fundraising and policy decisions. She was Deputy Chief of Staff to Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, working on the Leader’s legislative activity and cooperating with the Clinton White House and House Democratic Leadership to develop agenda and strategy. In 1998 and 1999, she was a special assistant to the President for legislative affairs, a position that required her to work closely with both parties in the Senate to forge bipartisan agreements on the White House’s legislative priorities.

Fredrickson has published on various topics including labor law and German and American anti-discrimination law in the Brooklyn Journal of Law & Policy, Columbia Law Review, The New York Times and Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning.

Fredrickson graduated summa cum laude from Yale University and received her law degree from Columbia University, where she was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar and received the Emil Schlesinger Prize for her proficiency in labor law. At Columbia, she served on the Columbia Law Review and co-founded the Columbia Journal of Gender and Law.