David D. Cole is the National Legal Director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

Cole graduated magna cum laude from Yale College in 1980 and received his Juris Doctor (J.D.)

His most recent appearance before the Supreme Court was in 2010, challenging the First and Fifth Amendment implications of the USA PATRIOT Act's prohibition on providing "material support" to terrorist groups in Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project, 561 U.S. 1 (2010).

From 2013 to 2014, Cole was a Fellow with the Open Society Foundations, an international grantmaking network founded by business magnate George Soros that dispenses financial contributions to various liberal and progressive political causes in the United States.

[7] In addition to writing, Cole has also lectured and contributed academic articles on related topics including judicial review, domestic drugs policy, the War on Terror, and capital punishment.

[8] He is also a commentator on the National Public Radio program All Things Considered,[5] providing viewpoints from a liberal / progressive perspective, and a contributor to the New York Review of Books.

David Cole has received awards from professional bodies and campaigning groups for his civil rights and civil liberties work, including from the American Bar Association's Individual Rights and Responsibilities Section, the National Lawyers Guild, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, and the American Muslim Council.

[10] In 2013 David Cole also was the first recipient of the ACLU's Norman Dorsen Presidential Prize for academic contributions to civil liberties.