Eight years ago, we knew Donald Trump would shortly assume the presidency and that his campaign had featured loud threats to civil rights. But in December 2016 it was unclear how much of his demagogic rhetoric was political posturing as opposed to blueprint, with many who care about civil rights hoping it was mostly campaign talk. But as the country learned over Trump’s first term, starting with the Muslim ban he issued shortly after his inauguration, the talk was real.

In the most recent campaign, Trump’s rhetoric was even angrier and uglier. Given this, it is neither alarmist nor premature to be contemplating a civil-rights siege starting with Trump’s second inauguration, and I focus here on immigration, animus-based executive action, and the courts in New York. But before turning to those issues, a note that this will be my last Civil Rights and Civil Liberties column, which I have penned since 2004. After over 40 years in the ACLU family, I am stepping down as the legal director of the New York Civil Liberties Union at the end of this year (a decision I made well before the election). I will be pursuing a longtime interest in urban planning, an area rich with civil-rights controversies and one I often have discussed in my columns over the years. And starting in March 2025 I will author a new Law Journal column about civil rights and the urban landscape.