Summer 2025 Graduate Legal Intern, Freedom of Religion and Belief Program

The ACLU seeks Legal Interns for the Summer of 2025 for the Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief of the ACLU’s national office in Washington, D.C. 

The Team:

The Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief works to safeguard the First Amendment’s guarantee of religious liberty by ensuring that laws and governmental practices neither promote religion nor interfere with its free exercise. Building on the ACLU’s century of work defending these constitutional principles, the Program employs an integrated strategy of litigation, public education, and advocacy. Summer interns will have the opportunity to gain meaningful legal experience by assisting PFRB's attorneys in various aspects of litigation, from developing new cases to researching and writing portions of briefs at the district-court and appellate-court levels. Interns will gain exposure to a variety of prominent religious-freedom issues.  

What You’ll Do:

Summer interns will learn about all aspects of the Program’s work, including litigation, public education, and advocacy, and will gain experience through a variety of assignments, including but not limited to:  

• Drafting memoranda, affidavits, and briefs.
• Conducting legal and policy research.
• Researching prospects for new litigation, including factual and legal claims. 
• Researching and drafting materials for public education. 
• Tracking and analyzing legislative bills.

What You’ll Bring:

The summer internship is open to law students who will have completed at least one year of law school before the summer of 2024. Interns should possess the following:  

• Excellent research, writing, analytical, and communication skills.
• The initiative to see projects through to completion. 
• The ability to work with a wide range of people. 
• A strong interest in and commitment to civil rights and civil liberties and the ACLU’s mission. 
• A dedication to diversity within the office, using a personal approach that values all individuals and respects differences in race, ethnicity, age, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, religion, disability, and socio-economic circumstance. 
• The ability to work collaboratively and respectfully toward resolving obstacles and/or conflicts and to center principles of equity, inclusion, and belonging in all work.   

INTERNSHIP OVERVIEW 

• Location: This internship is remote. 

• Time Commitment: Summer internships require a full-time commitment of 35 hours per week. 

• Internship Duration: Full-time internships span 10 consecutive weeks during the summer. This internship has a start date of: May 27 or June 9, 2025.

• Stipend: A stipend is available for those students who are lawfully authorized to work. Arrangements can be made with educational institutions for work/study or course credit. 
  • Below is the stipend breakdown:
  • $20/hour for undergraduate students or equivalent experience
  • $24/hour for graduate and law students or equivalent experience

In their cover letter, applicants should discuss their interest in religion and civil liberties, including any relevant life or work experience gained before or during law school.  

Why the ACLU:

For over 100 years, the ACLU has worked to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed by the Constitution and laws of the United States. Whether it’s ending mass incarceration, achieving full equality for the LGBTQ+ community, establishing new privacy protections for our digital age, or preserving the right to vote or the right to have an abortion, the ACLU takes up the toughest civil liberties cases and issues to defend all people.

Our Commitment to Accessibility, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion  

Accessibility, equity, diversity, and inclusion are core values of the ACLU and central to our work to advance liberty, equality, and justice for all. For us diversity, equity and inclusion are not just check-the-box activities, but a chance for us to make long-term meaningful change. We are a community committed to learning and growth, humility and grace, transparency and accountability. We believe in a collective responsibility to create a culture of belonging for all people within our organization – one that respects and embraces difference; treats everyone equitably; and empowers our colleagues to do the best work possible. We are as committed to anti-oppression and anti-racism internally as we are externally. Because whether we’re in the courts or in the office, we believe ‘We the People’ means all of us. 

With this commitment in mind, we strongly encourage applications from all qualified individuals without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, national origin, marital status, citizenship, disability, veteran status and record of arrest or conviction, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law. 

The ACLU is committed to providing reasonable accommodation to individuals with disabilities. If you are a qualified individual with a disability and need assistance applying online, please email [email protected]. If you are selected for an interview, you will receive additional information regarding how to request an accommodation for the interview process.