April 10, 2005
2005 co-recipients of the Charles T. Bumer Civil Libertarian Award
The 2005 co-recipients of the Charles T. Bumer Civil Libertarian Award are Mindy Jo Facer and Sandy Arsham. The National Lawyers Guild, of which Ted Bumer was a proud member, gives the award each year to the Thomas Jefferson student who best personifies the ideals to which Ted devoted his life. A criminal defense attorney and military lawyer, Ted fought for civil rights in San Diego from the early 1950s until his death in 1995. Since Ted described himself as “something of a First Amendment freak,” the award is Lawrence Tribe’s treatise on Constitutional Law, Ted’s favorite book.
Left to Right: Sandy Arsham, Professor Marjorie Cohn, and Mindy Jo Facer
Mindy Jo Facer is vice president of the Thomas Jefferson chapter of the Guild, she served as a legal observer at the anti-Iraq War demonstrations, and has logged many hours of pro bono work for the Public Defenders office and Planned Parenthood. She plans to devote her career to furthering women’s rights.
Sandy Arsham went to law school in response to the repressive USA Patriot Act. An anti-war activist in the 1960s, Sandy has continued her work for social justice by helping to found the Society for Church State Separation. On the first anniversary of the Iraq War, Sandy assembled a moving display of 571 empty pairs of shoes to memorialize the US soldiers killed to that date.