ACLUs Anthony Romero Says CEOs Are Ducking the Hard Issues

Anthony Romero, the longtime leader of the American Civil Liberties Union, isn’t afraid to speak out against government policies that he sees as harmful.He wishes other chief executives would do the same.Business leaders have appeared reluctant to air their views during President Trump’s second term.

During that time, tariffs have disrupted supply chains and immigration raids have upended labor markets.Law firms and media companies cut deals and settled lawsuits that many experts said were winnable.

Mr.Trump has regularly cast doubt on the integrity of elections and pre-emptively challenged the results of a midterm race in Alaska and thousands of ballots in California.Mr.

Romero, 61, who has run the organization for the past 25 years, recognizes that his role is not akin to that of a chief executive who answers to shareholders.But he believes that corporate executives also have a role to play in defending democratic institutions.

He has taken notice of the tech billionaires who donated to the A.C.L.U.during Mr.

Trump’s first term but have not written checks this time around.During the 2016 presidential campaign and first few months of the first Trump administration, the A.C.L.U.’s revenue more than doubled from the previous fiscal year.It waned during the Biden years and jumped again in the lead-up to Mr.

Trump’s return to the White House, but half as fast as before.Mr.Romero, who directs some 2,100 employees and more than $550 million in contributions, says that the A.C.L.U.

still must be judicious about the cases it pursues.“This is not a church,” he said at his office with a view of the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor.“Prayer is not enough.

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