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Michael Kaufman

Pronouns: he/him/his

Sullivan and Cromwell Access to Justice Senior Staff Attorney

Advocacy

Bio

Michael Kaufman is Sullivan and Cromwell Access to Justice senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Southern California.

Michael specializes in immigrants' rights and economic justice issues. His active cases include: Rodriguez v. Jennings, a long-standing class action suit that challenges the government’s authority to detain immigrants for prolonged periods without a bond hearing; Hernandez v. Sessions, a challenge to immigration bond procedures that fail to include consideration of ability to pay and non-monetary conditions of release; Santiago v. Los Angeles, a lawsuit on behalf of street vendors whose property was confiscated by the police; and Alvarado v. Los Angeles Superior Court, a lawsuit challenging automatic driver’s license suspensions for unpaid traffic court fines and fees.

Michael joined the ACLU of Southern California in 2010 as a Stanford Public Interest Law fellow. From 2008 to 2010, Michael was a Skadden fellow at the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights in San Francisco, where he directed a project to empower and advance the rights of domestic workers in the Bay Area.

Michael graduated from Stanford University and earned his J.D. from Stanford Law School. Following graduation, he clerked for Judge Sidney R. Thomas of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Featured Work

News & Commentary
  • Accountability and Abuse of Power|
  • +1 Issue

Soaring caseloads, flat funding crush dependency system

Imagine having the moral and legal responsibility to represent over 500 individual children in complex legal proceedings and protect their best interests. These are the impossible circumstances that currently face dependency attorneys in California, as documented in “System on the Brink,” a white paper issued today by the ACLU of California.
News & Commentary
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  • Immigrants' Rights|
  • +1 Issue

Was our government responsible for the torture of a US citizen in the UAE?

Today, the ACLU Foundation of Southern California (ACLU SoCal) and Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Los Angeles are appearing before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to enforce the rights of U.S. citizen Naji Hamdan, a Muslim-American man from Southern California, to find out whether the U.S. government was involved in the torture that he experienced in the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.).

Related Content

News & Commentary
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  • Immigrants' Rights|
  • +2 Issues

Shackle a pregnant woman, risk a foreseeable tragedy

The news on Mother’s Day left her elated: she was pregnant with her first child. But Monserrat Ruiz Cuevas’ celebration was short lived.When she learned she was pregnant, she was in custody at the Mesa Verde Detention Center, an immigration facility in Bakersfield operated by GEO Group, Inc. Within days Monserrat became ill and was taken to a hospital for urgent medical care.