Monica L. Miller - American Humanist Association

Monica L. Miller

Monica L. Miller is Legal Director and Senior Counsel at the AHA’s Appignani Humanist Legal Center and Executive Director of the Humanist Legal Society. Since joining the AHA in 2012, Miller has vigorously defended the constitutional mandate of separation of church and state by litigating Establishment Clause cases across the country. She has served as lead counsel in over 25 federal cases, including before the U.S. Supreme Court, and the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Fourth, Fifth, Ninth, Tenth, and Eleventh Circuits. Miller has presented oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court, as well as the Courts of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (twice), Fifth Circuit, Ninth Circuit, and Eleventh Circuit. She has filed a number of briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court and served as counsel of record in our Supreme Court case challenging the Bladensburg Cross. Miller has appeared live on Fox News and MSNBC, as well as local television stations and radio shows, and is regularly quoted by national and local media outlets throughout the country, including Fox News, NPR, ABC, NBC, Aljazeera, USA Today, Newsweek, the Washington Post, the New York Times, the National Law Journal, among many others.

Miller graduated from Pitzer College in 2008 and from Columbia University in 2009 with a Masters in Public Administration for Environmental Science and Policy. She graduated cum laude from Vermont Law School in 2012. Miller was a Dean’s Fellow at Vermont Law School where she taught first-year legal writing. She also created the Vermont Law School “Secular Law Students Association,” and was a semi-finalist in the 2012 Animal Law Moot Court Competition.

In pursuit of her concern for fundamental rights, Miller is also an attorney for the Nonhuman Rights Project (NhRP), working to obtain common law personhood rights for nonhuman animals. Miller’s work at the NhRP has captured the interest of the world’s leading legal scholars, scientists, and journalists. She is also featured in an HBO documentary, Unlocking the Cage.

A member of the California State Bar and the U.S. Supreme Court Bar, Miller is also admitted to practice in the District of Columbia, the United States Courts of Appeals for the Third, Fourth, Fifth, Ninth, Tenth, Eleventh, and D.C. Circuits, and the United States District Courts for Central California, Colorado, and the Northern District of Florida.

Honorarium terms are best negotiated on an individual basis. Monica L. Miller does not usually stipulate this fee; however, compensation for travel is required.