The 2025–26 Annual Samuel J. Konefsky Memorial Lecture: The Trump Administration’s Assault on the Rights of Immigrants—The Battle in the Courts and Beyond

Lee Gelernt, a lawyer at the ACLU and widely recognized as one of the nation’s leading public interest lawyers, has argued some of the country’s highest-profile cases, including in the U.S. Supreme Court and 10 federal courts of appeals, and has testified in the House and Senate.

Among Gelernt’s cases are a successful challenge to the Trump administration’s practice of separating thousands of families at the border. His work on this case received worldwide attention, including in the 2020 documentary The Fight and a July 2018 New York Times Magazine cover story about the ACLU. He is currently lead counsel in a challenge to the Trump administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act, which resulted in hundreds of Venezuelans being sent to the notorious Salvadoran CECOT prison without any due process.

Gelernt also teaches at Columbia Law School. He has won numerous awards and has been recognized as one of the 500 leading lawyers in the country in any field. He lectures widely around the country and regularly appears in the media, documentaries, podcasts, books, and television shows.

The Konefsky Lecture is an annual event that honors Samuel J. Konefsky, a Brooklyn College alumnus who became a professor of constitutional law at the college from the 1940s to 1970. At the event, a scholarship generously donated by the Konefsky family is presented to a Brooklyn College pre-law student.