15 Facts About Ben Wizner

Ben Wizner was born on 1971 and is an American lawyer, writer, and civil liberties advocate with the American Civil Liberties Union.

Ben Wizner has described being drawn to social justice work from at least as early as high school; after graduating Harvard College in 1993, he worked for an organization that provided legal assistance to homeless and near-homeless people.

Ben Wizner began working for the American Civil Liberties Union in Los Angeles in August 2001, initially focusing on prison reform.

Ben Wizner made several trips to the Guantanamo Bay detention camp.

In 2011, Ben Wizner became director of the ACLU's Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project.

Ben Wizner is an adjunct professor at New York University School of Law.

Ben Wizner is a contributor to the website Lawfare, has written for Time, the Freedom of the Press Foundation, and several other media outlets, and has testified before the US Congress.

In 2013, Edward Snowden contacted journalist Glenn Greenwald and filmmaker Laura Poitras, longtime acquaintances of Ben Wizner, about releasing classified information on NSA programs.

Poitras consulted with Ben Wizner before travelling to meet Snowden in Hong Kong.

Ben Wizner describes being a "gatekeeper" of media requests for Snowden.

Ben Wizner has said that he believes Snowden will return to the US eventually.

Ben Wizner has called the Snowden case "the work of a lifetime" and "not traditional legal work, by any means".

Ben Wizner had previously spent a decade trying to bring cases against US intelligence agencies, with these cases often dismissed for lack of standing.

Ben Wizner has defended a right to privacy, and has been critical of the use of extensive surveillance to enforce law.

Ben Wizner has highlighted the role of lawbreaking in positive social change, pointing to the LGBT civil rights movement and drug prohibition as areas where illegal activities have contributed to positive changes in the law and public opinion.