Activist and advocate Rebecca Buckwalter-Poza provides commentary on law, politics and policy for web and print media, radio and television. As Alliance for Justice’s Senior Aron Justice Counsel, she is best known for her role as the first named plaintiff in Columbia University’s successful First Amendment lawsuit barring President Trump from blocking journalists and other constituents on Twitter.
Since 2005, Buckwalter-Poza has worked on progressive campaigns and policy projects on five continents, including as deputy national press secretary of the Democratic National Committee during the 2008 presidential election. She also worked for the Progressive Accountability Office, a project of the Center for American Progress and Media Matters for America.
She has been judicial affairs editor at Daily Kos, covering the Supreme Court, judicial nominations and legal developments, with a focus on civil rights. She was also Yale Law Journal’s inaugural Justine Wise Polier Public Interest Fellow,where she directed access to the project Making Justice Equal at the Center for American Progress.
Buckwalter-Poza co-founded Prism, a publication that elevates stories from underrepresented leaders, thinkers and activists whose voices are critical to a reflective democracy. Before that, she served as senior legislative counsel at The Appeal and The Justice Collaborative.
In 2010–11, she was the Henry Luce Scholar at the Asian Legal Resource Center and Asian Human Rights Commission in Hong Kong. In 2017, she took part in the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ U.S.-Taiwan Policy Program, and in 2018 she participated in the Schusterman Foundation’s REALITY Impact journey to Israel.
In her capacity as an LGBTQ Latina activist and storyteller, she has moderated panels, spoken at university events and conferences, and performed in venues from The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to the 9:30 Club in her adoptive city of Washington, D.C.
Buckwalter-Poza co-wrote James Carville’s 40 More Years and contributed to Paul Begala’s Third Term. Her writing on politics and law has been published by Democracy Journal, Washington Monthly, CNN, NPR, The Daily Beast, Pacific Standard, The Nation, The Atlantic, Politico and others. She has been a regular guest on the Bill Press Show and has appeared on networks including MSNBC. She received an AB in government from Harvard College and a J.D. from Yale Law School. She clerked for the Honorable Margaret Ryan on the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces and the late Honorable Juan R. Torruella on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.