Externally Funded Church-State Litigation Fellowship

Americans United for Separation of Church and State is accepting applications for one-year or longer litigation fellowships that are externally funded—for example, by fellowship-funding organizations or law schools. Applicants are responsible for identifying their own funding source. Unfortunately, Americans United cannot identify or raise external funding for applicants. Of course, if you are selected for the fellowship, Americans United will support you in completing the funding application to the external funder.

The Church-State Litigation Fellow must be committed to civil rights, impact litigation, and upholding core First Amendment protections. You will fight to keep religion out of government—including through challenges to religious coercion in public schools, religious proselytization by governmental officials, and public funding of religious institutions. And your work will include defending the rights of women, LGBTQ+ people, and racial and religious minorities against religion-based discrimination and oppression.

About Americans United

Americans United is a nonpartisan educational and advocacy organization dedicated to advancing the constitutional principle of church-state separation as the only way to ensure freedom of religion, including the right to believe or not believe, for all of us. Founded in 1947, Americans United is a diverse and dynamic organization composed of people from all walks of life: lawyers and lobbyists, students and activists, religious leaders and impassioned Americans. Americans United includes people of faith and people who don’t profess any particular faith.

For nearly 80 years, we have litigated church-state issues in federal and state courts across the country, with a substantial practice before the federal courts of appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court.

Most of our cases involve novel, cutting-edge First Amendment and other constitutional issues. In recent years, for example, we have litigated lawsuits and submitted amicus briefs challenging or opposing:

• Coercive religious practices in the public schools. 

• Proselytizing by Trump-Vance Administration officials.
• Public funding of religious education. 
• Religion-based refusals by businesses, foster-care agencies, and government officials to provide services to LGBTQ+ people and religious minorities.  
• Religion-based efforts to deprive people of access to abortion and contraceptives.  
• Race-based and sex-based employment discrimination by religious employers.

For more information about Americans United’s legal program, please visit our website at www.au.org.

Duties and responsibilities

Fellows participate in all aspects of litigation before trial and appellate courts. Fellows write briefs, draft pleadings and discovery, work with clients, interview witnesses, participate in settlement negotiations, screen incoming complaints, and assist with development of new cases. Fellows may also have opportunities to take and defend depositions, conduct in-court examinations of witnesses, take part in oral arguments, and do public speaking.

Under the close supervision of our experienced litigators, Fellows receive the intensive training in trial and appellate litigation needed to become the next generation of leading impact litigators. Fellows regularly go on to serve as judicial clerks or work for public-interest organizations, government, academia, or plaintiffs’-side civil-rights firms.

Eligibility and requirements

Third-year law students, recent law-school graduates, and judicial clerks who are committed to advancing the public interest and the separation of religion and government are encouraged to apply. Applicants must comply with the requirements of the entity or program that would fund their one-year or longer fellowship at Americans United.

 

Americans United includes and welcomes people of all genders, races, ethnicities, religions and beliefs, sexual orientations, gender identities, ages, socioeconomic backgrounds, and abilities. Because we work on a wide variety of issues and with many different communities, we value what diversity and diverse perspectives bring to our work.

 

Research shows candidates from marginalized groups are less likely to apply for positions when they don’t meet 100% of the listed requirements; please consider applying even if you don’t match 100% of these criteria.

 

Equal opportunity employer

Americans United is an equal opportunity employer. We consider applicants without regard to race, color, religion, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, disability, marital or veteran status, sexual orientation, or any other legally protected status. If you need an accommodation for a disability to apply to this position, please let us know by emailing [email protected].  

 

Compensation

This fellowship requires external funding. If Americans United selects an applicant for the externally funded fellowship and the amount provided by the fellowship funder is below the amount that an internally funded Americans United employee would be entitled to receive under Americans United’s compensation system (which is described in detail at bit.ly/AuscsCareers), then Americans United will pay the difference.

As a result, the Fellow’s total compensation will be at least $85,730. Further, to the extent not provided by the fellowship funder, Americans United will provide to the Fellow the same comprehensive benefits that it provides to its internally funded employees, which include employer-paid premiums for health care, dental, vision, life insurance, short-term disability, long-term disability, 401(k) with match, and commuter subsidy. Americans United reserves the right to consider the amount of external funding offered by the fellowship funder in deciding whether to select a Fellow.  

 

Work location

Fellows can work remotely from anywhere in the following fifteen states: California, Indiana, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Montana, New York, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. Fellows can also work remotely in Washington, D.C. or locally in our Washington, D.C. office. Occasional in-person attendance at events and meetings in Washington, D.C. will be required, most likely several times per year.

 

Working conditions and physical requirements

This position primarily involves working from a home office and/or professional office environment. The position requires routinely using standard office equipment such as computers, phones, and video-conferencing tools. It also requires the ability to remain in a stationary position for extended periods, communicate effectively, and occasionally move about within the workspace. 

 

Position classification

This is a full-time, exempt position. This position is within a union; it is included in the bargaining unit represented by AU Collective in connection with SEIU Local 500.

 

How to apply

Please submit a cover letter, a resume, a law-school transcript, a writing sample, and a list of three references through our web-based application portal at bit.ly/AuscsBambooHR. The cover letter should highlight why you want to work with us and what perspectives you would bring to strengthen our practice. The writing sample may be of any length; it should be your best example of comprehensive and detailed legal argument or analysis, should be your own work, and should not be substantially edited by anyone else. If you have any questions about the position, please do not hesitate to contact us at [email protected].

 

Deadline: Applications are accepted on a rolling basis and may be considered at any time. Applicants interested in an externally funded fellowship beginning in Fall 2027 are encouraged to apply promptly.