Constitutional Litigation Fellowship

Americans United for Separation of Church and State is seeking a two-year (Aug./Sep. 2027–Aug./Sep. 2029) Constitutional Litigation Fellow who is committed to civil rights, impact litigation, and upholding core First Amendment protections. You will fight to keep religion out of government—including through challenges to religious coercion in public schools, religious proselytization by governmental officials, and public funding of religious institutions. And your work will include defending the rights of women, LGBTQ+ people, and racial and religious minorities against religion-based discrimination and oppression.

Americans United is a nonpartisan educational and advocacy organization dedicated to advancing the constitutional principle of church-state separation as the only way to ensure freedom of religion, including the right to believe or not believe, for all of us. Founded in 1947, Americans United is a diverse and dynamic organization composed of people from allwalks of life: lawyers and lobbyists, students and activists, religiousleadersand impassioned Americans.

Americans United includes people of faith and people whodon’tprofess any particular faith.

For nearly 80 years, we have litigated church-state issues in federal and state courts across the country, with a substantial practice before the federal courts of appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court. Most of our cases involve novel, cutting-edge First Amendment and other constitutional issues. In recent years, for example, we have litigated lawsuits and submitted amicus briefs challenging or opposing:

• Coercive religious practices inthe public schools.
• Proselytizing by Trump-Vance Administration officials.
• Public fundingofreligious education.
• Religion-based refusals by businesses, foster-care agencies, and government officials to provide services to LGBTQ+people and religious minorities.
• Religion-based efforts to deprivepeopleof access to abortion and contraceptives.
• Race-based and sex-based employment discrimination by religious employers.

For more information about Americans United’s legal program, please visit our website .org.

Fellows participate in all aspects of litigation before trial and appellate courts. Fellows write briefs, draft pleadings and discovery, work with clients, interview witnesses, participate in settlement negotiations, screen incoming complaints, and assist with development of new cases. Fellows may also have opportunities to take and defend depositions, conduct in-court examinations of witnesses, take part in oral arguments, and do public speaking.

Under the close supervision of our experienced litigators, Fellows receive the intensive training in trial and appellate litigation needed to become the next generation of leading impact litigators. Fellows regularly go on to serve as judicial clerks or work for public-interest organizations, government, academia, or plaintiffs’-side civil-rights firms.

Third-year law students, recent law-school graduates, and judicial clerks who are committed to advancing the public interest and the separation of religion and government are encouraged to apply. Americans United includes and welcomes people of all genders, races, ethnicities, religions and beliefs, sexual orientations, gender identities, ages, socioeconomic backgrounds, and abilities. Because we work on a wide variety of issues and with many different communities, we value what diversity and diverse perspectives bring to our work.

Research shows candidates from marginalized groups are less likely to apply for positions when theydon’tmeet 100% ofthelisted requirements; please consider applying even if youdon’tmatch 100% of these criteria.