Last updated on: 2/1/2016 | Author: ProCon.org

Wendy Kaminer, JD Biography

Title:
Former Board Member of the American Civil Liberties Union
Position:
Now Con to the question "Is the ACLU Good for America?"
Reasoning:

“This book focuses on what I regard as a dramatic ethical decline at the ACLU, involving the institutionalization of deceit and abandonment of core civil-liberties principles by staff and lay leadership-enabled by the use of social pressure to silence dissent.”

Worst Instincts: Cowardice, Conformity, and the ACLU, 2010

Prior to her 2010 statement above, Wendy Kaminer was classified as “pro”:

“You get values from your family. You don’t need religion to believe in a golden rule. I get my values from the ACLU and I wouldn’t call that a religion.”

Mar. 2000
Involvement and Affiliations:
  • Writer
  • Senior Correspondent, The American Prospect
  • Contributing Editor, The Atlantic
  • Professor, Tufts University, 1988-1990
  • Staff attorney, New York Legal Aid Society, 1977-1978
  • Former staff attorney, New York City Mayor’s Office
  • Former Board Member, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
  • Former Guggenheim Fellow
  • Awarded Smith College Medal, 1998
Education:
  • JD, Boston University Law School, 1975
  • BA, Smith College, 1971
Other:
  • Writer, the New York Times
  • Writer, the Atlantic Monthly
  • Writer, the Wall Street Journal
  • Writer, Free Inquiry
  • Writer, Dissent
  • Writer, The Nation
  • Writer, Newsweek