ACLU-NCA Staff

Arthur B. Spitzer, Legal Director

Arthur Spitzer was born in Brooklyn, which explains a lot. He was raised in Queens and graduated from Bayside High School, Cornell University, and Yale Law School. After clerking for Judge Walter K. Stapleton (then D. Del., now 3rd Cir.), he practiced for several years at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering (now WilmerHale) before assuming his current position on April Fool’s Day, 1980. He is a member of the American Law Institute and a Master at the Edward Coke Appellate Inn of Court. His dog’s name is Justice. He is not related to former New York Governor Elliot Spitzer.

Fritz Mulhauser, Staff Attorney

Fritz Mulhauser has been a staff member of the American Civil Liberties Union of the Nation’s Capital for almost two decades. As staff attorney, he litigates cases involving fundamental rights in various settings, with a concentration on cases challenging police misconduct.   He represented misdemeanor criminal defendants in D.C. Superior Court while he was in law school.  He has been adjunct professor at several law schools in the District.  He is on the board of the Council for Court Excellence and was on the board of D.C. Prisoners’ Legal Services Project before it merged with the Washington Lawyers Committee.  He has for many years been on the Steering Committee for the D.C. Bar Section on Courts, Lawyers & the Administration of Justice.

He earlier served for 11 years as a staff member for the U.S. Congress, first on the Education and Labor Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives and later as Assistant Director in the U.S. General Accounting Office where he led research and investigations and testified on a wide range of legislative policy topics including the war on drugs, education, immigration and the civil service.  For his GAO service he received the Comptroller General’s Award. He directed research in education policy for a decade as a member of the staff at the National Institute of Education, formerly a part of the U.S. Department of Education.  He began his career as a high school teacher. 

His undergraduate degree is from Harvard (magna cum laude) and his law degree from Georgetown University Law Center.  He also holds graduate degrees in history from Yale University and education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Jennifer Wedekind, Staff Attorney and Dunn Fellow

Jennifer Wedekind joined the ACLU-NCA staff in November 2012. Previously, she was a Litigation Fellow at the ACLU National Prison Project, where she litigated class action lawsuits challenging prison conditions. Her work there culminated with a U.S. District Court trial in Alabama challenging that state's mandatory segregation of all HIV-positive prisoners. During both her undergraduate and legal studies, Ms. Wedekind participated in investigative work in innocence projects, and her discovery of long-lost DNA evidence for a Maryland prisoner during the law school project led to a petition for new analysis pending before the courts there. Prior to her legal career, Ms. Wedekind worked as a journalist in Washington, DC and taught English in Vietnam.

Ms. Wedekind received her undergraduate degree in journalism from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism and her law degree from Georgetown Law.

Seema Sadanandan, Organizer

Seema Sadanandan is an organizer/filmmaker/lawyer who uses art and media as a vehicle for social transformation. She credits her anti-racist framework to the Peoples Institute for Survival and Beyond and the Jagrutha Mahila Sanghatane of Raichur District, South India- a Dalit women's agricultural labor union. Seema along with North Star Production produced several documentary films including projects focused on indigenous peoples, public property, political prisoners in the United States and the erosion of civil liberties. While studying law at American University's Washington College of law she worked and studied under Pamela Bridgewater exploring innovative multidisciplinary projects related to reproductive justice. She is a currently a member of the Maryland State Bar.

Felicia Smith, Office Manager

Mrs. Felicia D. Smith, a native of Portsmouth, Virginia, joined the ACLU of the Nation's Capital in December, 2012. After proudly serving our country in the US Navy, she had the opportunity to work with many organizations including Underwriters Laboratories, Inc. and the National Association of Realtors®. Most recently, Mrs. Smith served as Office Administrator for a national non-profit professional association, and as an Office Manager for an office supply and copier company. Mrs. Smith brings over 20 years of vendor management, procurement, bookkeeping, and accounting experience to Nation's Capital affiliate. Mrs. Smith also previously served as a Human Resources generalist.