Bio
Hina Shamsi (@HinaShamsi) is the director of the ACLU National Security Project, which is dedicated to ensuring that U.S. national security policies and practices comply with the Constitution, civil liberties, and human rights. She has engaged in litigation, research, and policy advocacy on issues including the freedoms of speech and association, racial and religious discrimination, unlawful uses of force and detention, privacy and surveillance, and torture. Her work includes a focus on the intersection of national security and counterterrorism policies with international human rights and humanitarian law.
Hina has testified before Congress and appears regularly in the media. She is the author and co-author of publications on targeted killing, torture, and extraordinary rendition, and has monitored and reported on the military commissions at Guantánamo Bay. She is also a lecturer-in-law at Columbia Law School, where she teaches a course in international human rights.
Before joining the ACLU in her current position, Hina worked as a senior advisor to the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions; as a staff attorney in the ACLU's National Security Project; as the acting director and senior counsel of Human Rights First's Law & Security Program; and, as an associate at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP. Hina is a graduate of Mount Holyoke College and Northwestern University School of Law.
Featured work
Dec 26, 2024
Where Defense Secretary Nominee Pete Hegseth Stands on Civil Liberties
Jan 24, 2024
The Importance of Defending the Free Speech Rights of Pro-Palestinian Students in Florida
Jan 8, 2024
The Supreme Court Must Allow U.S. Citizens to Challenge Placement on No Fly List
Sep 21, 2023
RICO and Domestic Terrorism Charges Against Cop City Activists Send a Chilling Message
Jan 11, 2022
20 Years Later, Guantánamo Remains a Disgraceful Stain on Our Nation. It Needs to End.
Sep 10, 2021
20 Years After 9/11, We Have a Roadmap Toward a More Just and Equitable Future
Jul 9, 2021
Biden’s Domestic Terrorism Strategy Entrenches Bias and Harmful Law Enforcement Power
May 5, 2021
Trump’s Secret Rules for Drone Strikes and Presidents’ Unchecked License to Kill
Jun 4, 2020
More Military Deployment and Terrorism Investigations are an Outrageous Response to Black Pain, Grief, and Anger