LEGAL NEWS PHOTO BY CYNTHIA PRICE
by Cynthia Price
Legal News
Those who knew Miriam Aukerman when she was at Legal Aid of Western Michigan will not be surprised to hear that she has thrown herself into her new job at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
As evidence, Aukerman’s office filed a lawsuit this morning against the Michigan Attorney General and the City of Grand Rapids on behalf of two clients, saying that the state’s anti-begging laws are unconstitutional. Grand Rapids has arrested at least 399 people for begging since Jan. 2008 (through May 2011).
States Aukerman, “Anti-begging laws that punish that most vulnerable segment of our society are not only harsh, they are unconstitutional.” The bases for the latter claim are that peaceful panhandling is a form of protected free speech — for example, one of the plaintiffs was holding a sign that said only, “Need job, God bless” — and that punishing people for begging unfairly penalizes people for being poor, violating the Equal Protection Clause.
Aukerman added, “We need laws and practices that provide compassionate solutions for our growing homeless population.”
The dynamic lawyer is no stranger to the ACLU. Before being hired in December 2010, she worked pro bono on a number of projects as an ACLU cooperating attorney, including litigation. She served on the West Michigan lawyers committee for a decade.
And now, she is in the position of working full time for the civil rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.
The ACLU has fought for the protections afforded by the Bill of Rights since the 1920s. The Michigan chapter was organized in 1959.
That struggle in pursuit of constitutional protections has often meant engaging in controversial litigation — over the years in situations which all sides of the political spectrum could find offensive.
These include, in an instance which alienated many of ACLU’s base supporters, a 1977 freedom-of-expression suit successfully challenging ordinances which Skokie, Illinois, a city with a large Jewish population, utilized to prevent neo-Nazis from marching there. Ten years earlier, the ACLU had been instrumental in a case which eventually resulted in the U.S. Supreme Court striking down laws which prohibited interracial marriage.
But litigation is not the only avenue the ACLU pursues. Aukerman is quick to say that she is also charged with working behind the scenes to effect change, and with educating the public and raising awareness about civil liberty issues.
She adds, “The ACLU is a non-partisan, principled organization. We’re often working to defend unpopular speech and unpopular points of view, but that’s because all of us have a right to free speech and to equality.”
Aukerman emphasizes that ACLU membership is very broad, and appeals to great numbers of attorneys. “From religious liberty to poverty law to racial justice to LGBT issues to education equity to immigration issues to children’s rights, it’s hard to find someone who doesn’t agree with the ACLU on some issue.”
Moreover, attorneys are often drawn to working with the ACLU because it gives them a chance to make a real difference. “It’s a great opportunity for lawyers. This is the reason many people went to law school: they want to be working on the cutting-edge constitutional issues of the day. Some of these are fascinating cases to work on.”
Noting that the ACLU stance on religious liberty is “often misunderstood,” Aukerman says that, far from being anti-religious, it is necessary work for “insuring that people have the ability to practice their religious faith.”
She refers to a case in which the ACLU acted on behalf of a student who was told she could not put a Bible verse in her yearbook entry. “We represented her successfully, and were able to negotiate a resolution.”
Aukerman had a career in international relations before studying law, and earned her master’s degree in that field as a Keasbey Scholar at England’s Oxford University. Born in Indiana, spending part of her childhood in Michigan, and raised mostly in Maryland, Aukerman graduated from Cornell University summa cum laude.
Her international work took her to Germany, where she still has family, and, while employed by the Ford Foundation, to Russia.
When caring for her father brought her back to the U.S., Aukerman decided to attend law school. She graduated, also summa cum laude, from New York University School of Law. She clerked for Judge Pierre Leval of the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
Her return to Michigan, which she said she could barely remember, was motivated by her husband taking a position at Grand Valley State University. He is a classical scholar, and Grand Valley has an impressive classics department. The couple has two young daughters, aged 7 and 3.
Once here, Aukerman obtained a job at Legal Aid of Western Michigan, where great possibilities opened up for her when, after a year there, she received a Soros Fellowship to start the Reentry Law Project. She continued to direct that project for the better part of a decade thanks to additional grants from such sources as the Grand Rapids Bar Foundation and the Grand Rapids Community Foundation. She was successful in elevating prison reentry program reforms throughout the state.
She continued to distinguish herself through work on the collateral consequences of criminal convictions, as well as through ACLU cases on topics such as racial profiling and freedom to protest.
Now that she has settled into her new office space, which is in the same building as Legal Aid, Aukerman’s very full days run the spectrum of legal activities on behalf of those whose civil rights have been threatened or abridged.
Aukerman says that determining what to focus on is a complicated process at the ACLU. There is a state board of directors and a state lawyers committee, and local versions of each — the West Michigan Regional Office deals with more than one local lawyers committee, which Aukerman says are the “eyes and ears on the ground.” Issues may filter up from the local committees, or down from the state office, headed by Executive Director Kary Moss. Cases which require a lot of work are prioritized if they represent a systemic problem versus an individual one.
Of current cases and involvements, Aukerman highlights two in addition to the anti-begging suit.
One which has received a lot of publicity is the “pay or stay” practice in which judges order jail sentences for those who are unable to pay fines or afford mandated services. The ACLU stance is that this does not afford equal protection under the law because people with money have a tremendous advantage over people in poverty. Aukerman has filed emergency appeals in three such cases.
Explaining that the ACLU also engages in court watching throughout the state, Aukerman says, “I think that the practice has become entrenched in many courtrooms; judges may not be aware that there is clear law on this issue.”
She tells of a woman who, ordered to have an alcohol assessment, tried to borrow money to afford it and showed up for her appointment with an offer to pay in installments, but was turned down and given a jail sentence.
The second area involves a single case, though one that is deemed representative, on abusive treatment of Hispanic individuals by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officials. The ICE officers followed a car which contained a U.S. citizen and someone who was here on a legal permit, and came out with guns blazing when the car stopped at its destination. The female had to go to the emergency room, allegedly slammed up against a car. Aukerman’s office is currently engaged in a Freedom of Information Act request to ICE, which is not cooperating.
To read the anti-begging law complaint, visit www.aclumich.org/sites/default/files/BeggingComplaint.pdf.
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