This breaks my heart --
Stefan Presser, for twenty-one years the executive director of
the ACLU of Pennsylvania, succumbed to brain cancer Friday at the age of 52. The Philadelphia Inquirer obituary
is here, and a nice 2004 profile can be accessed
via this link.
People tend to think of "the ACLU" as a monolith, but much of its litigation work is actually done by the independent local chapters. Under Presser's leadership, the ACLU of PA won huge victories in such diverse areas as freedom of speech on the Internet (repeatedly!), separation of church and state, racial profiling, prisoner's rights, death penalty reform and reforming Philadelphia's treatment of abused and neglected children.
As former U Chicago Law Dean Geoff Stone
noted last week:
The ACLU isn't a decision-making body. Its function is not to decide what the law is. It is, rather, to advocate points of view that are fundamental to American freedom, views that would not otherwise be adequately represented. Its function is to ensure that judges and legislators as least hear the civil liberties side of the argument. I might not want to live in a society in which every ACLU position was the law, but I know I would not want to live in a society without the ACLU.
Stefan Presser advocated those points of view to the best of a lawyer's skill, and, better still, he won. For his having fought these battles, we've all won; sadly, today, we've all lost.
Which leads me to ask this question: are you a member of the ACLU (or your local chapter)? And if not, why not join today?
From Aaron Sorkin's The American President:
For the record: Yes, I am a card-carrying member of the A.C.L.U. But the more important question is why aren't you, Bob? This is an organization whose sole purpose is to defend the Bill of Rights, so it naturally begs the questions.
Why would a senator, his party's most powerful spokesman and a candidate for president, choose to reject upholding the Constitution?
Join today. These fights aren't won without your support.