Fight of the century Writers reflect on 100 years of landmark ACLU cases

Book - 2020

To mark its 100-year anniversary, the American Civil Liberties Union partners with award-winning authors Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman to bring together many of our greatest living writers, each contributing an original piece inspired by a historic ACLU case. On January 19, 1920, a small group of idealists and visionaries, including Helen Keller, Jane Addams, Roger Baldwin, and Crystal Eastman, founded the American Civil Liberties Union. A century after its creation, the ACLU remains the nation's premier defender of the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution. In collaboration with the ACLU, authors Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman have curated an anthology of essays about landmark cases in the organization's one-h...undred-year history. Fight of the Century takes you inside the trials and the stories that have shaped modern life. Some of the most prominent cases that the ACLU has been involved in--Brown v. Board of Education, Roe v. Wade, Miranda v. Arizona--need little introduction. Others you may never even have heard of, yet their outcomes quietly defined the world we live in now. Familiar or little-known, each case springs to vivid life in the hands of the acclaimed writers who dive into the history, narrate their personal experiences, and debate the questions at the heart of each issue. Hector Tobar introduces us to Ernesto Miranda, the felon whose wrongful conviction inspired the now-iconic Miranda rights--which the police would later read to the man suspected of killing him. Yaa Gyasi confronts the legacy of Brown v. Board of Education, in which the ACLU submitted a friend of- the-court brief questioning why a nation that has sent men to the moon still has public schools so unequal that they may as well be on different planets. True to the ACLU's spirit of principled dissent, Scott Turow offers a blistering critique of the ACLU's stance on campaign finance. These powerful stories, along with essays from Neil Gaiman, Meg Wolitzer, Salman Rushdie, Ann Patchett, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Louise Erdrich, George Saunders, and many more, remind us that the issues the ACLU has engaged over the past one hundred years remain as vital as ever today, and that we can never take our liberties for granted. Chabon and Waldman are donating their advance to the ACLU and the contributors are forgoing payment.

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Subjects
Published
New York : Avid Reader Press 2020.
Language
English
Other Authors
Viet Thanh Nguyen, 1971- (-), Jacqueline Woodson, Michael Chabon, Ann Patchett, Brit Bennett, Steven Okazaki, Daniel Handler, Geraldine Brooks, Yaa Gyasi, Sergio de la Pava
Edition
First Avid Reader Press hardcover edition
Physical Description
xxiv, 305 pages ; 24 cm
ISBN
9781501190407
  • Stromberg v. California (1931) / Viet Thanh Nguyen
  • Powell v. Alabama (1932) and Patterson v. Alabama (1935) / Jacqueline Woodson
  • United States v. One Book Called "Ulysses" (1933) / Michael Chabon
  • Edwards v. California (1941) / Ann Patchett
  • West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette (1943) / Brit Bennett
  • Korematsu v. United States (1944) / Steven Ozazaki
  • Hannegan v. Esquire (1946) / Daniel Handler
  • Terminello v. City of Chicago (1949) / Geraldine Brooks
  • Brown v. Board of Education of Topkea (1954) / Yaa Gyasi
  • Gideon v. Wainwright (1963) / Sergio De La Pava
  • Escobedo v. Illinois (1964) / Dave Eggers
  • New York Times Co. v. Sullivan (1964) / Timothy Egan
  • Lamont v. Postmaster General (1965) / Yiyun Li
  • Griswold v. Connecticut (1965) / Meg Wolitzer
  • Miranda v. Arizona (1966) / Hectar Tobar
  • Loving v. Virginia (1967) / Alexksandar Hemon
  • Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District (1969) / Elizabeth Strout
  • Gregory v. City of Chicago (1969) / Adrian Nicole LeBlanc
  • Street v. New York (1969) / Rabih Alameddine
  • Brandenberg v. Ohio (1969) / Moriel Rothman-Zecher
  • Cohen v. California (1971) / Jonathan Lethem
  • New York Times Co. v. United States (1971) / Salman Rushdie
  • Roe v. Wade (1973) and Doe v. Bolton (1973) / Lauren Groff
  • O'Connor v. Donaldson (1975) / Ayelet Waldman
  • Weinberger v. Wiesenfeld (1975) / Jennifer Egan
  • Buckley v. Valeo (1976) / Scott Turow
  • Bob Jones University v. United States (1983) / Morgan Parker
  • Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah (1993) / Victor Lavalle
  • Hurley v. Irish-American Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Group of Boston (1995) / Michael Cunningham
  • Reno v. ACLU(1997) and Ashcroft v. ACLU (2004) / Neil Gaiman
  • City of Chicago v. Morales (1999) / Jesmyn Ward
  • Zadvydas v. David (2001) / Moses Sumney
  • Immigration and Naturalization Service v. St. Cyr (2001) / George Saunders
  • Lawrence v. Texas (2003) / Marlon James
  • Rasul v. Bush (2004) / William Finnegan
  • Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District (2005) / Anthony Doerr
  • Schroer v. Billington (2008) / Charlie Jane Anders
  • Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl (2013) / Brenda J. Child
  • United States v. Windsor (2013) / Andrew Sean Greer
  • ACLU v. United States Department of Defense, et al. (2018) / Louise Erdrich.
Review by Choice Review

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has been the vanguard organization litigating Bill of Rights protections for more than 100 years. Its résumé of legal victories includes some of the most consequential cases in American history. These include cases defining religious liberty, free speech, religion, and criminal justice with clients who were communists, Nazis, Klan members, Jehovah's Witnesses, immigrants, and pornographers, among others. Advocating for the rights of these unpopular litigants raises the questions of whether protecting them advances the cause of personal liberty for everyone else and what their victories mean today. This edited volume of brief essays by a host of writers and scholars, most of whom are not lawyers, assesses the legacy of these cases and the impact of the ACLU on the cause of individual freedom in the 21st century. Each essay covers one case and its legacy. Although the quality of each case commentary varies, the collection provides nice summaries of the cases and their relevance to the US today, good for general audiences seeking to learn more about law and public affairs. Summing Up: Recommended. General readers and lower-division undergraduates. --David Schultz, Hamline University

Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review

As they did in Kingdom of Olives and Ash (2017), writers Chabon and Waldman have created a stunning collection of original and topical essays, this time in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the American Civil Liberties Union. Formed in 1920, the ACLU pursues a mission of protecting and expanding upon the Bill of Rights through nonprofit, nonpartisan work that goes to the core of the country's most sacred values. Take the 1941 case of Edwards v. California, challenging the ""anti-Okie"" law which made it illegal to bring an indigent person into California. In Ann Patchett's inspired telling, we feel the humanity behind the legality in her empathic vision of a husband just trying to placate his wife by doing the right thing for her hapless brother. Or Morgan Parker's passionate evisceration of racial discrimination laws in Bob Jones University v. United States. Immigration, unionization, abortion rights, freedom of speech and of the press: America would not be America without landmark rulings protecting these ideals. Geraldine Brooks, Yaa Gyasi, Timothy Egan, Aleksandar Hemon, Salman Rushdie, Marlon James, and an inspired host of other sharp and clarion minds vividly bring consequential court cases to life and recognize the essential work of the ACLU's intrepid, principled lawyers and the sacrosanct rule of law.--Carol Haggas Copyright 2019 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Husband and wife Chabon (Moonglow) and Waldman (A Really Good Day) gather dozens of prominent writers to commemorate the ACLU's centennial with powerful, inspiring essays on the legal organization's milestone cases. Addressing City of Chicago v. Morales (1999), novelist Jesmyn Ward (Sing, Unburied, Sing) explores how the concept of loitering has been used to police black communities. Novelist Michael Cunningham (A Wild Swan) recalls that a 1995 decision upholding the right of Boston's Irish Council to ban LGBTQ marchers from its St. Patrick's Day parade led to his arrest in New York City's procession. Journalist Héctor Tobar (Deep Down Dark) memorably credits Miranda v. Arizona (1966) for turning Fifth Amendment protections into "a civic poem in free verse," and poet Moriel Rothman-Zecher (Sadness Is a White Bird) skillfully traces the repercussions of a KKK leader's overturned conviction in Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969). Fittingly, the book's standout essay is also its most contrarian: novelist and lawyer Scott Turow (Testimony) delivers an impassioned takedown of the ACLU's long-standing position that political spending is protected under the First Amendment. Vigorous, informative, and well-organized, this outstanding collection befits the ACLU's substantial impact on American law and society. (Jan.)

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Review by Library Journal Review

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has been at the forefront of cases related to civil rights in the United States for more than a century. Marking the organization's centennial, this collection edited by Chabon (The Yiddish Policeman's Union) and Waldman (Love and Treasure) examines not just the history, but also the social context and ongoing impact of the ACLU's landmark rulings. Highlights include Chabon's analysis of the 1933 case United States v. One Book Called Ulysses, describing how the James Joyce novel was labeled obscene and its import forbidden under the Tariff Act of 1930. Author Marlon James explores how racism and homophobia intersect in Lawrence v. Texas, the case that found discriminatory laws regulating homosexual sex unconstitutional. Poet Morgan Parker's response to Bob Jones University v. United States recounts a sermon by the evangelical university's founder supporting segregation, and considers the use of biblical distortion to uphold oppression. VERDICT At a time in which civil rights are under threat worldwide, this collection is a reminder that basic human rights and dignity tend to get crushed under populism. An essential, necessary look at a century of progress, with a eye to the ever-present threat of losing those hard-won rights.--Bart Everts, Rutgers Univ.-Camden Lib., NJ.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review

A well-curated collection of the most influential cases of the American Civil Liberties Union, published to mark the organization's 100th anniversary.Husband-and-wife team Chabon and Waldman (co-editors: Kingdom of Olives and Ash: Writers Confront the Occupation, 2017) present a finely edited almanac of lively, contextually grounded stories that read like the greatest hits of freedom. Written by some of today's most popular and celebrated authors, these essays serve as history lessons, cautionary tales, and calls to arms. Considered in terms of contemporary cultural values and changes, the contributors explore a variety of issues with an eye on broad efforts of the ACLU to protect the rights of vulnerable populations. For people of color, immigrants, religious minorities, LGBTQ community members, and others whose rights have been threatened or undermined by patterns of discrimination, the collection informs ongoing movements for justice. However, it's not all praise, as some contributors offer well-reasoned criticisms of ACLU actions. Throughout, the contributors deftly handle the promises and challenges of the courts and their decisions, covering such issues as privacy rights, intellectual freedom, and women's rights. As each legal caseincluding Roe v. Wade, Brown v. Board of Education, Gideon v. Wainwright, among many othersis spun through the writers' perspectives and distinct approaches, the resulting distillation provides insights that are both riveting and refreshingly diverse. This is not solely a book about controversial decisions so much as one that traces the ACLU's efforts at attending to the importance of the rule of law, the role of the courts, and the significance of legal reform. It's a timely and cohesive love song for freedom, sung by an impressive roster of contributors, including Neil Gaiman, Jesmyn Ward, George Saunders, Marlon James, Salman Rushdie, Meg Wolitzer, Liyun Li, Elizabeth Strout, Jacqueline Woodson, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Aleksandar Hemon, and Lauren Groff.Fiery, focused, bold voices address groundbreaking decisions. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.