Bio
Martha J. Rossiter is the legal director for the ACLU of Wyoming, North Dakota, and South Dakota.
As legal director, Martha leads the ACLU’s litigation program and engages in legal advocacy to advance civil liberties and civil rights in the three states. She is a passionate, highly motivated attorney whose work encompasses a broad range of constitutional issues.
Martha joined the ACLU in 2026 with nearly two decades of experience in criminal defense and civil rights proceedings, litigating jury trials in more than 100 criminal and civil cases in both state and federal courts. She started her career with the Kern County Public Defender’s office in Bakersfield, Calif., where she defended the constitutional the constitutional rights of people facing criminal charges. She later litigated civil rights cases involving law enforcement agencies in Southern California before returning to South Dakota in 2017 to join the Pennington County Public Defender’s Office.
Martha is a cum laude graduate of the University of South Dakota and the University of La Verne College of Law in Southern California.