Edgar Saldivar is a senior staff attorney who represents ACLU clients in high impact litigation in federal and state courts across Texas. His practice encompasses several civil rights issues, primarily voting rights, immigrants’ rights, and free speech.
Prior to the ACLU, Edgar handled various complex business disputes. After an accomplished career in the private sector, where he was recognized as one of Houston’s 40 Under 40 by the Houston Business Journal, Edgar pursued “the good fight” to seek justice and equality for all by defending the civil and human rights of marginalized people in Texas.
In his first year as a civil rights lawyer, he attained record-breaking settlements against the U.S. government that resulted in changes to immigration enforcement policies at the southern border. In 2017, he led a team of volunteer lawyers at Houston’s Intercontinental Airport in the broad effort to prevent constitutional violations of protesters and travelers affected by the president’s Muslim ban. That year, he also secured the release of a 10-year-old child with cerebral palsy from unlawful federal custody and reunited her with her family. Subsequently, Edgar has appeared as counsel in the U.S. Supreme Court, including in Trump v. New York — a landmark case that successfully blocked attempts to exclude noncitizens from the Census used to apportion the House of Representatives — and in Brackeen v. Haaland — a landmark victory for tribal sovereignty that upheld the constitutionality of the Indian Child Welfare Act against challenges by the Texas Attorney General.
Edgar manages trial teams in the fight against voter suppression by the State of Texas, including the historic challenge to SB1, an omnibus voter suppression law passed by the State in 2021. In November 2020, he successfully represented voting rights organizations against efforts to void over 126,000 drive-thru votes cast in Harris County, Texas, the third largest county in the U.S. He also serves on the statewide, nonpartisan Election Protection coalition.
A sought-after public speaker, Edgar has testified before Congress, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, and the Texas Legislature. He’s been a guest lecturer at Harvard Law School, NYU School of Law, Duke University School of Law, and Wiley College — a historically Black institution that also honored Edgar with its “Men of Strength Award” for his demonstrated commitment to “educate the youth, inspire, and lead.” In 2017, Edgar was the only Texas attorney and sole representative of the nonprofit sector honored by the Hispanic National Bar Association with its Top Lawyers Under 40 Award.
Born and raised in Texas and fluent in Spanish, Edgar is the son of Mexican immigrants. Hustling through poverty and first-gen challenges, Edgar graduated cum laude from Harvard University with a B.A. in Philosophy. He received his J.D. from the University of Houston Law Center and then completed post-graduate courses in psychology and French at Rice University.
