ACLU SoCal Advocacy Internships, Externships, & Volunteer Opportunities
The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California (ACLU SoCal) is currently accepting applications for interns, externs, and volunteers to work in our Los Angeles, Orange County (Santa Ana), Inland Empire (San Bernardino), and Kern County (Bakersfield) offices. We are accepting internship applications from students at all academic levels, including undergraduates, law students, social work students, and other graduate students. We are also accepting applications for volunteers who are not currently enrolled in an academic program. People of color, women, people with disabilities, people over 55, and people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or intersex are encouraged to apply. Please review the application instructions carefully.
About ACLU SoCal
The ACLU of Southern California comprises two organizations: The ACLU of Southern California and the ACLU Foundation of Southern California (collectively "ACLU SoCal"). Founded in 1923, ACLU SoCal has been at the forefront of numerous major efforts for civil liberties, civil rights, and equal justice in California. ACLU SoCal tackles a vast array of issues, including criminal justice, First Amendment, gender equity, reproductive justice, LGBTQ rights, immigrants' rights, police practices, education equity, jails conditions, and economic justice. The ACLU SoCal has offices in Los Angeles, Orange County, Inland Empire, and Kern County.
ACLU of Southern California is committed to developing a culture of diversity, equity, respect, and inclusion and to strive to maintain a workforce that reflects the communities that we serve. The ACLU SoCal is an equal opportunity employer that does not unlawfully discriminate on the basis of any status or condition protected by applicable law. We encourage all qualified individuals to apply and value people of all races, genders (including gender identity or expression), sexual orientations, disabilities, citizenships, ages, religions, and national origins and who have different marital statuses, family caregiving responsibilities, lived experiences with the criminal justice systems, and genetic information. ACLU SoCal does not tolerate discrimination or harassment on the basis of any of these characteristics.
The ACLU SoCal 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 e-mail hrsupport@aclusocal.org. If you are selected for an interview, you will receive additional information regarding how to request an accommodation for the interview process.
Internship/Externship Information
NOTE: Our staff and interns are primarily working hybrid or remotely. We do not currently have internship opportunities that are fully in-person.
Interns will be assigned to a specific project/subject area. Please review the individual project group postings below for a more detailed description of their work and specific intern/volunteer needs.
The ACLU SoCal is currently unable to pay stipends for interns or volunteers. Applicants are encouraged to apply for Public Interest Law Foundation grants or other grants and to investigate work-study options as alternative sources of compensation. The ACLU SoCal can serve as a work study host and will support students' applications for funding with supporting materials and documentation.
- Criminal Justice and Police Practices
- Economic Justice
- Education, Student Rights
- First Amendment
- Immigrants' Rights
- LA & Orange County Jails
- Gender, Sexuality, and Reproductive Justice
Summer Interns
Applications for Summer 2026 Internships are open from September 1, 2025 to February 20, 2026.
We ask that students commit to no fewer than eight weeks and prefer ten-week commitments or longer (although exceptions may be made in certain circumstances). The office is open five days a week and successful applicants will work eight-hour days (with some occasional longer days depending on the project deadlines).
The ACLU SoCal endeavors to make our summer internships as rewarding as possible. Each year, the ACLU SoCal hosts “Brown Bag” presentations that are open to interns from all local non-profits. Staff attorneys and advocates also host internal trainings for all interns on topics such as applying for clerkships, applying for fellowships, and interviewing clients to draft declarations. Although we have limited resources, our interns are invited to several social events as well.
We strongly encourage interns to seek funding from their schools and apply for other grants or scholarships. Unfortunately, the ACLU of Southern California does not have funding available for summer interns who request it.
Fall/Winter/Spring Interns
ACLU SoCal welcomes interns/externs in the fall, winter, and spring semesters. The number hired varies depending upon the needs of staff. Students should be able to commit to a minimum of 10 hours each week during the semester (some of which occasionally may be performed out of the office).
Applications for the Fall, Winter, and Spring semesters are accepted year-round but we close applications on the dates below:
- Fall Internships – August 1, 2025
- Spring Semester and Winter Quarter Internships – December 5, 2025
- Spring Quarter Internships - February 13, 2026
Volunteers
The ACLU SoCal also frequently accepts non-student volunteers who are both attorneys and non-attorneys. Volunteers should be able to commit to working at least 15 hours a week over eight weeks, in or out of the office, or the hourly equivalent over a shorter period of weeks. In addition to the information listed in the following section, please state in your application your intended hourly commitment and duration of volunteer service. Please understand that the nature of the work we do may not allow us to engage all who may be interested in contributing time. Please follow all application procedures described below. In addition, please include a list of references.
People who seek to volunteer less time can sign up here.
How to Apply
All applicants should submit the following via email (internship@aclusocal.org):
- Cover letter
- Resume
- Writing sample
- Transcript (for current students)
In your subject line, please include the following information in brackets: your preferred subject area(s), your geographic preference(s), and the term for which you are applying. For example:
"Subject: [First Am/Immigration] [OC/IE/KERN/LA] [Summer 2026]" or "Subject: [Jails] [LA/OC/KERN IE] [FALL 2025]."
We encourage applicants to indicate no more than one subject area preference, but you may also list more than one or "[General]" as your preferred subject areas if you do not have a particular interest.
We are more likely to hire candidates with geographic flexibility. We cannot guarantee applicants' preferences and we may offer you a position outside of your areas of interest or geographic preference depending on our needs.
Criminal Justice and Police Practices
The ACLU of Southern California is currently accepting applications for legal interns interested in assisting the office’s criminal justice and police accountability work. This office has long been a leader locally and nationally on criminal justice and policing practices, utilizing litigation, policy work, and legislation to address criminal legal system and policing issues through an abolition-centered lens. We have worked with grassroots, labor and civil rights organizations on a broad array of local and statewide advocacy priorities, including reducing the number of people incarcerated and creating alternatives to policing for mental health crises and traffic enforcement. We are working to ensure that major legislative victories from our advocacy are fully implemented, including legislation that strengthened California’s deadly use of force standards, increased public access to police misconduct and use of force records, and strengthened the state’s prohibition on racial profiling and racial bias in policing and criminal proceedings through the Racial and Identity Profiling Act and Racial Justice Act, respectively. Other work that our project engages in includes indigent defense, prosecutorial accountability, surveillance practices, civilian oversight, use of force, police misconduct and decertification, law enforcement infringement on First Amendment rights, religious tracking, and border policing.
ACLU SoCal is currently accepting applications for interns who are interested in working on economic justice issues. Our economic justice work falls in three main areas: challenging the criminalization of poverty; expanding access to basic human needs like housing and healthcare, with a particular focus on protecting the rights of unhoused Californians; and advancing affirmative legal rights to basic human needs. Our office has been at the forefront of litigation and advocacy on a growing number of economic justice issues in California.
For example, in Victor Valley Family Resource Center v. City of Hesperia, we challenged the City of Hesperia's attempts to unlawfully restrict housing and support services for individuals with criminal records in violation of state law and the federal constitution.
In Glover v. City of Laguna Beach, we challenged Laguna Beach's criminalization and harassment of homeless persons, as well as its lack of resources for the homeless, as violating the ADA, the Eighth Amendment and due process.
In Santiago v. Los Angeles, we challenged the LAPD's policy and practice of seizing and destroying street vendors' property as violating the Fourth Amendment and due process.
In Tyson v. San Bernardino, we challenged the City’s practice of summarily destroying unhoused people’s essential personal property (including medical devices and important paperwork), as well as the City’s failure to provide disability accommodations to unhoused people during its encampment removal operations.
In addition to litigation, our office is actively engaged in community engagement and policy advocacy at the local and state level on a broad array of economic justice issues, including: campaigns to raise/restore revenues to fund basic human needs services; repeal court and criminal administrative fines and fees; reform excessive debt-collection policies that further keep people experiencing poverty poor; advance the right to healthcare and housing; advance the rights of unhoused community members to equal protection under the law; expand rights to paid sick days and family leave; and increase access to affordable housing.
Our legal interns will have an opportunity to conduct legal research, drafting, and analysis for our ongoing litigation and policy projects. Legal interns also will assist in public education, community engagement, advocacy, legislation, and monitoring efforts.
Our non-legal interns will have the opportunity to work on active campaigns, develop public education materials, give know your rights presentations to community members, attend coalition meetings, and perform drafting and data analysis for our reports.
Undergrads, law school students, and students in other academic programs are encouraged to apply. We are seeking interns for our Orange County, Inland Empire and Los Angeles offices for the summer, fall, and spring academic terms.
Education Equity and Student Rights
The ACLU SoCal is currently accepting applications for interns who are interested in working on education equity and student rights.
Our office has been at the forefront of litigation and advocacy on a number of education and student rights issues in California.
For example, in Reed v. State of California, we filed a class action lawsuit against the State of California and Los Angeles Unified School District to enjoin budget-based layoffs at three Los Angeles middle schools because they denied students their fundamental right under the California constitution to equal educational opportunity.
In DJ v. State of California, we filed a lawsuit on behalf of parents, students, and a former administrator against the State of California for its failure to respond to reports that school districts did not provide essential language instruction to English learner students.
In Cruz v. State of California, we filed a class action lawsuit against the State of California for failing to address the factors that reduce actual student learning time, denying students at low-income schools an equal education.
In Sigma Beta Xi vs. County of Riverside, we filed a class action lawsuit against the County of Riverside’s Youth Accountability Team (YAT) program, which subjected children to intrusive government searches and restrictions, disproportionately affected youth of color, and violated constitutional rights by coercing participation without due process.
Most recently, in Mark S. v. State of California, we filed a lawsuit against the State of California and Pittsburg Unified School District for maintaining a separate, unequal, and illegal educational system where Black Students, students with disabilities, and English learners are segregated in substandard learning environments, excluded from classrooms through the use of unwarranted suspensions and expulsions, and, as a result, denied their constitutional right to a public education free from discrimination.
Beyond our litigation, we are also actively involved in community advocacy and legislative efforts to shape education policy. For example, we are currently at the forefront of efforts to:
- remove law enforcement personnel and surveillance systems that compel students and families to interact with law enforcement, including through legislative advocacy;
- ensure California students have access to inclusive and affirming education, including access to effective mental and behavioral health services in schools;
- reduce school exclusion and student absenteeism outcomes by promoting inclusive school environments and culturally responsive education, while also challenging punitive classroom management practices in school districts that push disproportionate numbers of Black, Indigenous, and other students of color of their schools; and
- empower youth to advocate for civil liberties and social justice in their communities through our Youth Liberty Squad program.
Our legal interns will conduct legal research, drafting, and analysis for our litigation and policy projects, as well as for our public education materials. In previous years, our interns met with teachers and students to draft declarations, assisted in drafting legal briefs, and helped our attorneys prepare for depositions. Legal interns may also assist in public education efforts by drafting know-your-rights materials and helping conduct presentations.
Our undergraduate interns will participate in community engagement, policy advocacy, workshop development and presentations, campaign development, and coalition building. The internship will mainly focus on campaign support, issue-based projects, reports, and intakes. Interns may also support Youth Liberty Squad students during our programming, as well as create presentations on key topics identified by staff and/or students. ACLU SoCal's Youth Liberty Squad is a youth-led initiative that empowers young people to advocate for civil liberties and social justice in their communities.
High school students, undergrad students, law school students, and students in other academic programs are encouraged to apply; however, you need not be enrolled in a higher education program. We are seeking interns for both our Los Angeles and Inland Empire offices for the summer, fall, and spring academic terms.
The ACLU SoCal is currently accepting applications for law student interns who are interested in working on First Amendment, government transparency, and voting rights.
We do First Amendment work on issues relating to freedom of speech and protest, and freedom of religion. We also work on Public Records Act and open meetings issues to ensure the government remains transparent and allows for meaningful public participation so they may hold government accountable.
As part of our voting work, we provide legal, organizing, and mapping support to our partners that are engaged in California Voting Rights Act work, advocate in support of legislation that expands the franchise and makes voting easier and more accessible to Californians, and conduct local advocacy to ensure that voters are not being disenfranchised.
Here is a sample of some of our First Amendment, government transparency cases, and voting rights cases:
In Los Angeles Press Club v. Kristi Noem, we are seeking injunctive relief in federal court against journalists, protesters, and legal observers who have been subject to unnecessary and retaliatory uses of force by Department of Homeland Security officers at protests arising from immigration raids by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
In Alianza Translatinx et al v. City Huntington Beach, we are challenging a scheme of censorship in the city’s public libraries that bars access to non-obscene materials with any sexual content to people younger than 18 years old unless they have parental permission as violating California’s Freedom to Read Act and the Liberty of Speech Clause and Privacy Clause of the state constitution.
In Alexander v. Ervin, we are representing voters who have been sued for attempting to initiate a recall election of the Mayor of the City of Lancaster. We have brought an anti-SLAPP motion on their behalf on the ground that the lawsuit targets their constitutionally protected right to petition government
In People's Homeless Taskforce v. County of Orange, we challenged multiple policies+ and practices adopted by the Orange County Board of Supervisors, including the Board's prohibition on addressing individual supervisors at public meetings and its policy authorizing the immediate destruction of public records.
In addition to litigation, we attempt to protect the First Amendment and further government transparency through developing "Know Your Rights" material and attempting to resolve what we perceive to be First Amendment and other violations through advocacy short of litigation. In the voting rights space, we provide trainings to our partners and the public. We also provide the public with information about upcoming elections, including information on voting options.
Our legal interns will have an opportunity to conduct legal research, drafting, and analysis for our ongoing litigation and policy projects. Legal interns may also assist in public education, community engagement, advocacy, legislation, and monitoring efforts.
Law school students interested in this work are encouraged to apply. We are seeking interns for our Los Angeles and Orange County offices for the summer, fall, and spring academic terms.
ACLU SoCal's Immigrants' Rights Project accepts applications for internships on a rolling basis. Our office has been at the forefront of litigation and advocacy on a number of immigrants' rights issues. We are currently focused on three main areas: access to counsel, immigration detention, and immigration enforcement.
Our access to counsel work focuses on ensuring that no one can be deported without legal assistance and a fair hearing. J.E.F.M. v. Holder challenges the government's failure to provide appointed counsel to pro se children facing deportation. In the landmark victory in our Franco-Gonzalez v. Holder case, the Court established basic protections for immigrants with mental disabilities, including the right to appointed counsel and the right to robust competency determination procedures.
We are also actively engaged in advocacy efforts regarding public funding for immigration counsel.
Our immigration detention work ensures that detained immigrants are guaranteed their basic due process rights. Jennings v. Rodriguez challenges the government's policy of detaining immigrants for prolonged periods without providing them a bond hearing and it is currently being litigated in the U.S. Supreme Court. In Hernandez v. Lynch, we seek to require the government to consider immigrants' ability to pay a bond and non-monetary alternatives in setting conditions of release.
We also regularly monitor conditions in immigration detention facilities, provide individual legal assistance where possible, and advocate to reform immigration detention.
We currently are a leader in efforts to stop the entanglement of immigration and local law enforcement. We strive to ensure that law enforcement agencies do not unlawfully engage in immigration enforcement and that all individuals have equal access to immigration benefits and are not treated in a discriminatory manner. Through a recent victory in Gonzalez v. ICE, a federal judge issued a permanent injunction blocking ICE from issuing arrest requests based solely on error-ridden electronic databases. We are also challenging the government's discriminatory practices in unlawfully delaying and denying the immigration benefit applications of many Muslim individuals, under a covert program known as CARRP. See http://www.aclusocal.org/CARRP.
Our legal interns will have an opportunity to conduct legal research, drafting, and analysis for our ongoing litigation and policy projects. Legal interns also will assist in public education, community engagement, advocacy, legislation, and monitoring efforts.
Our non-legal interns will have the opportunity to work on active campaigns, develop public education materials, assist with know your rights presentations to community members, attend coalition meetings, and perform drafting and data analysis for our reports.
Undergrads, law school students, and students in other academic programs are encouraged to apply. We are seeking interns for our Inland Empire, Los Angeles, and Orange County offices for the summer, fall, and spring academic terms. Preference for students with Spanish or other foreign language proficiency.
Los Angeles County Jails team
The ACLU SoCal is soliciting applications from individuals interested in working on Los Angeles County Jails advocacy within the Criminal Justice team. For 2024-2025, the LA County Jails team is only hiring law students and only for the Summer 2025 term.
In Los Angeles County, ACLU SoCal monitors Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD) compliance with court orders in four cases: Rutherford v. Luna (limited general conditions, including mattresses, recreation, and processing times), Rosas v. Luna (use of force), Johnson v. Luna (ADA-compliant accommodations for people with mobility-related disabilities), and Robertson v. Luna (LGBTQI+ housing, classification, and conditions).
Through advocacy, public education, and litigation, we work to ensure that a basic standard of care is provided to incarcerated people. We also work with community partners on county-wide decarceration efforts, including the push to close Men’s Central Jail and fund alternatives to incarceration.
This is a great learning opportunity for any student thinking about a career in law or public service that centers advocating for the justice-involved community and those who want experience providing individual assistance to incarcerated people and a window into the issues they face. All, regardless of background, are welcome to apply. People who have been impacted by incarceration in some way are particularly encouraged to apply.
Duties may include:
- Screening complaints by incarcerated people regarding conditions in the LA County Jails
- Conducting in-person jails visits and/or interviews with incarcerated individuals.
- Analyzing and inputting responses received from the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department to ensure they are responsive and meet legal standards
- Speaking to people whose loved ones are in the LA County Jails in order to file grievances or direct them to resources
- Assisting ACLU SoCal staff with jails conditions advocacy in community-based organizations and with the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department
- Assisting in research and fact-gathering related to our four conditions cases.
Those who speak, read, and write Spanish fluently would be especially helpful, but any second language can be useful.
Orange County Jails Team
The ACLU SoCal Criminal Justice/Jails Project OC team is seeking interns to assist with examining conditions in Orange County jails and advocating with people in custody and their loved ones.
“Conditions” refers to housing assignments, medical and mental health care, LGBTQIA classification, grievance system, religious services, allegations of violence and retaliation and other related issues.
Interns will assist with staffing the Incarcerated People’s Hotline, collecting narratives and declarations that may support ACLU litigation, flagging administrative advocacy issues, as well as thinking creatively about other forms of advocacy to support the campaign to stop jail expansion in OC.
Interns will be supervised by Jacob Reisberg, Senior Policy Counsel. Students with lived experience with the criminal legal system, previous civil rights work experience, or a demonstrated interest in civil rights work, are especially encouraged to apply. Interns must commit to volunteer a minimum of six hours per week. Those who speak, read and write Spanish fluently would be especially helpful, but any second language can be useful.
Gender, Sexuality, & Reproductive Justice
The ACLU SoCal’s Gender, Sexuality, and Reproductive Justice Project is currently accepting applications for interns/externs. At present, our project is only hiring law students.
Our project focuses on LGBTQ+ rights, reproductive justice and gender equity. We accomplish this work through strategic and impactful legal advocacy, litigation, policy advocacy, public education, and community organizing to enforce existing legal protections and create new ones. Our current projects/cases involve:
- Sex worker rights and decriminalizing sex work;
- The Family Policing (child welfare) system and its disparate impact on Black, Brown, Native, and low-income families;
- LGBTQ+ student rights, including implementation of California’s inclusive education laws (such as comprehensive sex ed and inclusive history laws), and responding to attacks on trans student rights;
- Reproductive and gender justice for incarcerated people in California’s jails and prisons, including the rights of transgender incarcerated people.
Law students who work in the Gender, Sexuality, and Reproductive Justice Project will have an opportunity to conduct legal research and policy analysis, interview potential clients, participate in coalition meetings, develop or update know-your-rights materials, and support lobbying efforts.
We take law student interns for fall, spring, and summer terms.