‘Hope in the Face of Cruelty’: A Q&A With the NYCLU’s Newly-Appointed Legal Director, Molly Biklen

We’re in a profoundly perilous time in America and in New York. The legal fights against the Trump regime’s full-on assault on our democracy will shape our country and our state in immense and immeasurable ways over the next few years. The NYCLU’s legal actions during this time – the cases we choose to take on, and how we choose to argue them – will play an important role in how these battles play out.

At the center of these fights is Molly Biklen, the NYCLU’s new legal director.

When Molly arrived at the New York Civil Liberties Union in 2020 to serve as deputy legal director, she dove right into some of the state’s most consequential battles for New Yorkers’ rights. Molly led our work on a case that secured a landmark agreement to overhaul how the NYPD polices protests. And she helped hold the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision accountable for illegally sending thousands of incarcerated people into prolonged solitary confinement, among many other examples.

Molly was selected as our new legal director after long-time NYCLU legal lead Chris Dunn departed late last year. In her current role, she’s been in the driver’s seat as the NYCLU takes on some of the dire threats emanating from the Trump administration.

Here, Molly speaks about her first six years with the NYCLU and her vision for how the organization’s legal team will continue to fight Trump at a time when our rights are under graver threat than at any time in recent memory.

What brought you to the NYCLU?

The people and the work. The NYCLU has a unique role in New York as a statewide organization that focuses broadly on civil rights and civil liberties. There is nowhere else to work on such a diverse range of important issues and with such amazing colleagues.

What made you want to be our legal director?

Working at the NYCLU has been one of the most rewarding jobs of my entire career, and when the legal director position opened up right at the start of the second Trump Administration, I knew that I wanted to continue the fight. I am grateful to work with my colleagues in the legal department and across the NYCLU to challenge this unprecedented assault on our constitutional rights.

What is the most challenging case you’ve worked on here?

There are a lot! Many of our immigration cases are really challenging because of statutory provisions that attempt to stop the courts from actually addressing the constitutional issues or that limit the relief available. We often have to overcome many procedural hurdles just for the court to decide the issue before them.

What’s the most rewarding litigation you’ve taken on here?

It is hard to choose just one, but Payne v de Blasio, the NYPD protest litigation, is at the top of the list. In 2020, thousands of New Yorkers protested the murder of George Floyd. Many were met with the very police violence they were protesting, so to be able to work on litigation with our clients to change the way the NYPD responds to protest—by emphasizing de-escalation and reduced police presence—was really rewarding.

What does it feel like to be leading the NYCLU’s legal team at such a perilous time, when Trump is waging so many attacks on our basic freedoms?

The pace and breadth of the Trump administration’s lawlessness can feel really overwhelming. But the NYCLU and ACLU have shown what legal cases can do to slow things down, and in some cases stop the Trump administration’s assault on our civil rights and civil liberties. It feels encouraging to be a part of that fight.

Take us through how you go about selecting which cases to pursue during Trump’s second term. What are you looking for when deciding what will have the biggest impact?

There is no shortage of cases—at the federal, state, or local level. There is so much work to do that we really have to focus on where we can add value and take cases that will have an impact for a broad number of New Yorkers in support of the NYCLU’s vision—a New York where all people can live with dignity, equality, justice, and liberty, consistent with the unrealized promise of the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the New York State Constitution.

Sometimes this means individual habeas corpus actions that will advance the law, like Khalil v Trump, which challenges Mahmoud Khalil’s unlawful detention and the Trump Administration’s use of immigration law to censor pro-Palestine speech,  and sometimes bigger class actions or challenges that will target a particular Trump Administration policy, like African Communities Together and The Door v Todd Lyons, which targets ICE’s policy of arresting people at immigration courthouses.

While there is a lot of federal work stemming from the Trump Administration’s cruel agenda, we are also focusing on ways to shore up our rights as New Yorkers by, for example, enforcing the state constitution—including the newly amended Equal Rights Amendment—and our state voting rights act, and ensuring that local law enforcement and state agencies are complying with state and federal law, as in our case challenging the NYPD’s unlawful vehicle search policy.

What do you think people most misunderstand about the ACLU/NYCLU’s legal work?

Legal cases and arguments are just one part of the work that we do and often part of a larger strategy with field organizing, policy, communications, and coalition partners. One of the aspects that is so great about working in the legal department at the NYCLU is that we are part of an integrated approach that makes the legal work more powerful.

There may also be a misconception that we only focus on the federal government and going into federal court. We have a big state court practice and are often thinking about all the ways we can bring cases in state court and use New York law. There are many ways in which the New York constitution is more protective of civil rights than the federal constitution.

One other important thing to know about our work is that we do what’s called “impact litigation.” That means that, when we bring cases, we’re not just fighting for our individual clients, we’re hoping to establish new protections or new legal precedents that benefit all New Yorkers.

What’s your prediction for what the legal landscape looks like during the rest of Trump 2.0. What role do you see the NYCLU playing in fighting it?

The Trump Administration has been so aggressive in its assault on civil liberties, targeting immigrants, protesters, academic freedom, health care, transgender people, students, anti-discrimination law, and the environment. It has combined incredible federal overreach with lawlessness, disregarding due process and the First and Fourth Amendments. This is going to continue as will our work in fighting it. We will continue to have a lot of immigration and free speech work, as well as cases involving surveillance and unlawful searches and seizures.

How do you stay clearheaded during this time of chaos and dread?

Lots of caffeine. I’ve also been crocheting and knitting as a stress release. Many others in the legal department have gotten crafty recently. I think it’s important not to let the Trump Administration steal our joy. And, from a legal strategy perspective, we also focus on the affirmative work we have so that we are not just defending against the Trump Administration but also working to move us towards the affirmative vision of New York that we want to see.

What gives you hope?

I have a lot of hope from all of the actions of people joining together to protect and support their neighbors. We’ve seen it here in New York, Minnesota, Chicago and all over the country. That kind of mutual aid and support in the face of federal cruelty gives me hope.