A US diplomat, Peter Tarnoff rose to No. 3 in the State Department in the 1990s after years as a behind-the-scenes envoy, including helping to craft a plan to smuggle six State Department employees out of Tehran during the Iran hostage crisis.
As legal director for 15 years, he made the A.C.L.U. a more aggressive organization and worked with Ruth Bader Ginsburg before she became a United States Supreme Court justice.