Worst Instincts: Cowardice, Conformity, and the ACLU - Tapa dura

A provocative assessment of the ways in which the author believes that the ACLU has failed or unduly compromised its mission charges the organization with embracing increasingly lower ethical standards, drawing on her experiences as a dissident member of its national board to raise concerns about its advocacy of free speech, values about conformity, and performances in the wake of national emergencies.

Wendy Kaminer is the author of many books, including I'm Dysfunctional, You're Dysfunctional: The Recovery Movement and Other Self-help Fashions; A Fearful Freedom: Women's Flight from Equality; It's All the Rage: Crime and Culture; True Love Waits; and most recently Sleeping with Extra-Terrestrials: The Rise of Irrationalism and the Perils of Piety. Her articles and reviews have appeared in numerous publications including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Nation, The Atlantic Monthly, and Newsweek, and her commentaries have aired on National Public Radio.