13 Facts About Jameel Jaffer

Jameel Jaffer is a Canadian human rights and civil liberties attorney and the inaugural director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, which was created to defend the freedoms of speech and the press in the digital age.

Jameel Jaffer's family follow the Isma'ilism sect of Islam, although Jaffer does not describe himself as religious.

Jameel Jaffer grew up in Canada and is a graduate of Upper Canada College, a private school in Toronto.

Jameel Jaffer received his bachelor's degree from Williams College in 1994, his master's degree from the University of Cambridge in 1996, and his Juris Doctor degree from Harvard Law School in 1999, where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review.

Jameel Jaffer is the founding director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University.

Jameel Jaffer was on the staff of the American Civil Liberties Union from June 2002 until August 2016.

In 2004, Jameel Jaffer litigated a successful constitutional challenge to the USA Patriot Act, obtaining a federal court ruling that invalidated the "national security letter" provision.

In 2006, Jameel Jaffer filed a case challenging the Bush administration's refusal to issue a visa to Tariq Ramadan, a well-known Islamic thinker.

In 2012 and 2013, Jameel Jaffer argued two successful appeals, one before the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit and another before the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, relating to the Obama administration's refusal to release Justice Department memos concerning the "targeted killing" program.

In 2012, Jaffer argued Clapper v Amnesty International USA before the US Supreme Court.

Until August 2016, Jameel Jaffer was deputy legal director of the ACLU, and director of the ACLU's Center for Democracy, which housed the ACLU's work relating to free speech, privacy, technology, national security, and international human rights.

Jameel Jaffer is an Executive Editor of Just Security, a national security blog.

Jameel Jaffer was invited to celebrate Ramadan at the White House in 2009.