Ann Fagan Ginger

Ann Fagan Ginger (born July 11, 1925) is an American lawyer, teacher, writer, and political activist. She is the founder and the Executive Director Emerita of the Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute in Berkeley, California.

Biography

Ginger has been a visiting professor of law at Hastings University, the University of Santa Clara, and San Francisco State. She authored 22 books and many articles, and lectured widely. She is an expert in human rights law and peace law under the statutes and treaties of the United States and the United Nations. Ginger argued and won a case before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1959. She was the Chair of the City of Berkeley Commission on Peace and Justice from 1986-1989 and Vice-Chair from 1989–1999.

From the mid-1940s until the mid-1950s, Ann Fagan Ginger was married to historian and author Ray Ginger (1924 – 1975). In September 2000, she wrote to the Harvard Board of Overseers demanding an apology for Harvard's 1954 action in forcing her then-husband to resign his professorship for refusing to swear he was not a Communist. Harvard had demanded the same of Ann Ginger, although she was not a university employee. Harvard further demanded that the couple leave Massachusetts as a condition of receiving Ray Ginger's final two weeks' pay. Ann Ginger was then pregnant with their second son. She also made public FBI files that confirmed the Gingers' account of being required to sign a non-Communist oath. This was the first documented proof of Harvard having made such a demand, which Harvard had previously publicly denied. Harvard replied a few months later, admitting that Ray Ginger had been forced out of the faculty but not apologizing. Board of Overseers President Sharon Gagnon wrote: "I would not presume to ... second-guess the motives or judgments of individuals in that difficult time. It seems clear, however, that Harvard took an action in the case of Mr. Ginger that many thoughtful people today, looking back, would not find appropriate." Ann Ginger found the response insufficient and said Harvard needed a truth and reconciliation commission to make it face what it had done.

Selected works

• Bill of Rights Citator 1955-1966 [1967]
• Holdings of Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute and ACLU 1920-1966 [1967]
• California Criminal Law Practice [vol. I, 1969]
• The Relevant Lawyers;: Conversations out of court on their clients, their practice, their politics, their life style [1972]
• Human Rights Case Finder, 1953—1969
• The Law, the Supreme Court, and the People's Rights [1977]
• Jury Selection in Civil and Criminal Trials [1984]
• The Cold War Against Labor [1987]
• The National Lawyers Guild: From Roosevelt through Reagan (ed.) [Temple Univ. Press 1988]
• Carol Weiss King: Human Rights Lawyer (1895-52) [1993] (about mentor Carol Weiss King)
• Nuclear Weapons Are Illegal: The Historic Opinion of the World Court and How It Will Be Enforced [1998] (Summary)
• Human Rights and Peace Law in the U.S. [2003]
• Challenging U.S. Human Rights Violations since 9/11 [2005] (Table of Contents)
• Landmark Cases Left Out Of Your Textbooks (ed.) [2006] (introduction and table of contents)
• The Living Constitution (ed.) [2007]
• Undoing The Bush-Cheney Legacy: A Tool Kit for Congress and Activists (ed.) [2008]
• The U.N. Declaration of Human Rights Is the Law: A Guide to U.D.H.R. Articles in Treaties Ratified by the U.S. (ed.) [2009]

External links

• 2005 radio interview with Ann Fagan Ginger