 Carliner was chair of the District of Columbia Home Rule Committee and was responsible for the first modern home rule reforms in 1967.He served as the general counsel of the American Civil Liberties Union (1976–79); helped to found the ACLU’s National Capital Area chapter and Global Rights (then called the International Human Rights Law Group); and served on the boards of the ACLU (1965–83), the American Jewish Committee (1969–71), and a variety of other organizations.He was the author of the ACLU's 1977 handbook on immigrants' rights and a coauthor of its 1990 revision.