Background
Walczak was born in Ystad, Sweden on January 17, 1961 to Polish parents.
Walczak was born in Ystad, Sweden on January 17, 1961 to Polish parents.
Walczak attended Colgate University, where he played Division I soccer and majored in Philosophy. He graduated in 1983, and traveled that summer to Poland, which was under martial law. Walczak attended Boston College Law School, graduating cum laude in 1986.
After the war his family was exiled from Poland by the incoming Communist Government. He emigrated to the United States at age three, and spent much of his childhood in Scotch Plains, New Jersey. Education and Early While at Colgate, he helped the Polish trade union Solidarity to resettle refugees in the United States.
While assisting Solidarity in covert operations, Walczak was subjected to police brutality, wiretapping, and a strip search, and says that he narrowly avoided being imprisoned in Krakow.
Starting in 1986, he worked with the Prisoner Assistance Project of the Legal Aid Bureau in Baltimore, Maryland. In 1991, Walczak"s wife, a doctor, was offered a job in Pittsburgh.
After first applying to become a prosecutor with the United States. Attorney"s office, he was hired as the executive director of the Pittsburgh Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union"s Pennsylvania affiliate. In 2004, Walczak was named legal director for the statewide affiliate.
Kitzmiller v Dover Area School District
Walczak oversaw the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania"s 2005 challenge to the Dover Area School District"s policy requiring the teaching of Intelligent Design.
The American Civil Liberties Union prevailed in the District Court, and after all eight school board members who voted for the Intelligent Design requirement were defeated by opponents who opposed the teaching of Intelligent Design in a science classroom, the school board did not appeal. Lozano v City of Hazleton
Beginning in 2006, Walczak oversaw the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania"s challenge to the Illegal Immigration Relief Acting ordinances in Hazleton, Pennsylvania, arguing the case before the United States District Court and the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. The case was notable as the first federal trial challenging local efforts to regulate immigration.
Whiting, which addressed a similar law in Arizona.
The parties await a new ruling from the Third Circuit. Walczak is a fan of Bruce Springsteen"s music, and has cited Springsteen"s song "Participant Manitoba, Participant Monkey" as a source of inspiration during the Dover trial.
