Witold J. Walczak

Witold (“Vic”) Walczak is the Legal Director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania. A civil rights lawyer for nearly thirty years, Walczak has handled many nationally significant cases, including Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, the first case successfully challenging the teaching in public schools of “intelligent design” creationism; Lozano v. Hazleton, the first case successfully challenging a municipality’s attempt to exclude undocumented immigrants; Applewhite v. Commonwealth, which overturned Pennsylvanias restrictive Voter ID law; and Whitewood v. Wolf, the lawsuit that overturned Pennsylvanias ban in 2014 on marriage by same-sex couples. In the mid-1990s Walczak handled major police misconduct cases against the City of Pittsburgh that paved the way for the first ever intervention by the U.S. Department of Justice to overhaul a major city police department. Prior to joining the ACLU, Walczak spent five years handling prisoners rights cases for the Maryland Legal Aid Bureau. Walczak is a member of the American College of Trial Lawyers and has received many professional awards. He is a graduate of Colgate University and Boston College Law School. He and his wife have been together for over 30 years and they have three grown children. Walczak is a lifelong soccer player, avid biker, photographer and huge Bruce Springsteen fan.