Rebecca Kopplin: Sticking to Principle

Published: 
Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Rebecca Kopplin grew up hearing about the ACLU and was attracted to the organization because of our historical track record of standing by principles no matter how challenging or unpopular the circumstance.  It was this consistency, plus the prospect of working alongside ACLU-WA staff attorneys, that sold Rebecca on a legal internship for this summer.

Rebecca has worked on a wide range of projects: She has immersed herself in research on the legality of a county’s practices for court-imposed debts and has analyzed the constitutionality of a county’s guidelines for prayer at legislative meetings. She has summarized Washington case law and other states’ statutes on “SLAPP suits” (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation). She also assisted with deposition preparation and attended a deposition for the ACLU-WA’s voting rights suit in Yakima.

“It’s been great to see how the ACLU takes a comprehensive approach to civil liberties issues – pursuing a full range of advocacy strategies in addition to litigation,” she said.

Originally from Boise, Rebecca studied Chemical Engineering at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland and is set to begin her second year of law school at the University of Pennsylvania. During her time at Penn, she has worked at the Medical-Legal Community Partnership, providing direct legal services to patients at Philadelphia’s free Health Centers—a generalist practice covering such issues as estates, health care law, public benefits, and employment law.

In her free time Rebecca enjoys looking for new trails to hike, books to read on the bus, or recipes to cook (dessert preferred).