John Cusick serves as an Assistant Counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF).
John is part of a litigation team in AME, et al., v. Kemp, et al., challenging Georgia’s enactment of an omnibus voter suppression bill following the historic participation of Black voters in the 2020 general and 2021 runoff elections. He also represents a student organization and students at a historically Black university in Waller County, Texas who have been denied equal access to early voting opportunity in Allen, et al. v. Waller, et al. John was part of a litigation team in Gruver, et al. v. Barton, et al., which challenged Florida’s enactment of legislation that barred people with felony convictions from voting due to unpaid legal financial obligations.
During this post-2020 redistricting cycle, he is part of a litigation team in South Carolina NAACP, et al. v. Alexander, et al., challenging South Carolina’s racially gerrymandered U.S. Congressional and state House legislative districts. John also works with local leaders throughout South Carolina to urge local jurisdictions to adopt fair and non-discriminatory redistricting plans that provide Black voters with opportunities to elected their preferred candidates.
John has worked on LDF’s state- and county-level advocacy efforts to combat voter suppression tactics, including discriminatory cuts to early voting access, mass voter challenges, polling place closures, and voter intimidation. And he co-led LDF’s 2018 Prepared to Vote initiative, as well as led or co-led LDF’s election protection efforts in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas during recent elections.
In September 2017, John joined LDF as an Equal Justice Works Fellow. During his fellowship, he challenged the criminalization of children of color and law enforcement’s use of artificial intelligence technologies, advocacy that remains a core part of his work. He also worked on and remains actively engaged in the monitoring process in Davis, et al. v. City of New York, et al., a federal class action lawsuit challenging the New York City Police Department’s racially discriminatory and unconstitutional trespass-enforcement practices against Black and Latinx residents in public housing.
John received his J.D. from NYU School of Law and B.A. from CUNY John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Before law school, John worked in New York City government. He is a member of the New York State Bar.
