ADC Taps Civil Liberties Lawyer Jenin Younes Amid Urgent Rights Crisis

WASHINGTON – April 24, 2026 – The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) today announced the appointment of veteran civil liberties attorney Jenin Younes as its Interim President, a move the organization’s board described as a deliberate response to an era of unprecedented challenges for the Arab American community.

Younes, who has served as the ADC's National Legal Director since September 2025, steps into the leadership role effective immediately. The appointment was accelerated by the Board of Directors to provide “stable leadership” during a period defined by what the ADC calls an “urgent” need for legal advocacy in courtrooms, on university campuses, and within the halls of Congress.

“Younes has a deep commitment to ADC's mission and a clear understanding of what this organization means to ADC constituents, its employees and the greater Arab American community,” the Board stated in its announcement. Her career has been marked by a consistent focus on defending individuals against government overreach, a skill set the ADC has deemed essential for the path ahead.

A Veteran Civil Liberties Defender Takes the Helm

Jenin Younes brings a formidable legal background to her new role, one built on high-profile constitutional law and First Amendment advocacy. A graduate of Cornell University and New York University School of Law, she began her career as an appellate public defender in New York City, representing indigent clients before some of the state's highest courts.

Her national reputation was forged during her tenure as Litigation Counsel for the New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA), where she took on prominent cases challenging government authority. Younes was a key figure in the landmark social media case Murthy v. Missouri, which reached the U.S. Supreme Court and scrutinized the federal government's role in pressuring social media companies to moderate content. She also led a successful legal challenge against a California law that sought to discipline doctors for sharing COVID-19 information the state deemed “misinformation.”

For a period in 2023, Younes served as Senior Special Counsel to the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, further deepening her expertise in investigating government overreach. Her personal connection to the issues is also profound; as a Palestinian-American whose father grew up in the occupied West Bank, she has spoken of a lifelong awareness of injustice and the mechanisms used to silence dissent.

Upon joining the ADC, she immediately put her First Amendment expertise to work, filing a motion in a D.C. federal court case to argue against what she sees as a dangerous trend: the conflation of criticism of the Israeli government with unlawful discrimination.

An Accelerated Appointment for Urgent Times

The ADC Board’s decision to expedite Younes’s appointment, after having the role under consideration for four years, reflects a stark reality confronting Arab Americans. The period since October 2023 has seen a dramatic spike in anti-Arab and anti-Muslim sentiment and violence, which civil rights groups have linked to the Israel-Gaza war.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) documented this surge, reporting a 7.4% increase in discrimination and hate complaints in 2024, reaching the highest level since the organization began tracking in 1996. These incidents span employment discrimination, hate crimes, and educational bias. The climate of fear has been punctuated by horrific events, including the fatal stabbing of a 6-year-old Palestinian American boy in Illinois and the shooting of three Palestinian college students in Vermont.

University campuses have become a major flashpoint. Pro-Palestinian protests have been met with forceful crackdowns by police and university administrations, leading to hundreds of arrests, student suspensions, and intense debates over the limits of free speech. Civil liberties advocates, including Younes, have criticized these actions as unconstitutional infringements on the right to protest and express dissent.

This environment of heightened tension and legal conflict is precisely what the ADC board cited in its decision, noting the need for a leader with the “authority and focus” to guide the organization through this critical period.

Navigating a Complex Legal and Political Landscape

The challenges facing the Arab American community are not new, but they have taken on new dimensions. A 2024 Pew Research Center study found that 39% of U.S. adults believe Arab people face a high degree of discrimination, a perception rooted in a long history of racial profiling, surveillance, and hate crimes that intensified dramatically after September 11, 2001.

Today, the ADC is engaged on multiple legal fronts. The organization recently sued the City of Miami Beach, alleging officials unlawfully silenced pro-Palestine speech. It is also supporting a First Amendment lawsuit at the University of Michigan challenging the firing of pro-Palestine protestors and has filed amicus briefs urging federal courts to protect speech critical of foreign governments.

Younes’s expertise is directly applicable to these fights. Her career has been dedicated to pushing back against what she has termed efforts to “launder viewpoint discrimination through civil rights law.” This is particularly relevant to the ongoing legislative efforts, such as the promotion of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, which the ADC and other free speech advocates warn could be used to chill constitutionally protected criticism of Israel.

Founded in 1980 by former U.S. Senator James Abourezk, the ADC has a long history of serving as the nation's largest Arab American grassroots civil rights organization. Its mission to defend the rights and liberties of the estimated 3.7 million Arab Americans is now more critical than ever, as the community faces what one official called “organized efforts” to institutionalize “anti-Arabness in our legislation.” With Jenin Younes at the helm, the ADC is positioning itself for the complex legal and political battles that define the current civil rights landscape for Arab Americans.