Frank Askin (January 8, 1932 - July 1, 2021) was an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyses and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal qualification in law and often a legal practitioner. In the Uni ...

and professor of law at

Rutgers School of Law - Newark Rutgers Law School is the law school of Rutgers University, with classrooms in Newark and Camden, New Jersey. It is the largest public law school and the 10th largest law school, overall, in the United States. Each class in the three-year J.D. pr ...

Career

He was appointed to the Rutgers faculty upon his graduation from that school with highest honors in 1966. Admitted to the law school without an undergraduate degree, he was awarded a B.A. from City College of New York at the same time he received his J.D. from Rutgers. In 1970, he established the Constitutional Litigation Clinic as part of the law school's curriculum. Under his guidance, the clinic litigated the first police surveillance cases in the nation; battled the FBI over the investigation and maintenance of files on two precocious New Jersey high schoolers who corresponded with "the wrong persons"; defended affirmative action programs up to the

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

; challenged the

New Jersey State Police The New Jersey State Police (NJSP) is the official state police force of the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is a general-powers police agency with statewide jurisdiction, designated by troop sectors. History As with other state police organization ...

for stopping and searching "long-haired travelers" on the state's highways; argued for the right of the homeless to vote and to have access to public library facilities; and protected the right of grassroots advocacy groups to take their messages door-to-door and to privately owned shopping malls. He still is associated with the clinic. Professor Askin has been a member of the National Board of the

American Civil Liberties Union The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States". T ...

since 1969 and has been one of the ACLU's four general counsels since 1976. In 1986, he was the (unsuccessful) Democratic candidate for Congress in

New Jersey's 11th District New Jersey's 11th congressional district is a suburban district in northern New Jersey. The district includes portions of Essex, Morris, and Passaic Counties; it is centered in Morris County. The 11th congressional district, along with the 12 ...

, covering parts of

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and

Morris Morris may refer to: Places Australia *St Morris, South Australia, place in South Australia Canada * Morris Township, Ontario, now part of the municipality of Morris-Turnberry * Rural Municipality of Morris, Manitoba ** Morris, Manitob ...

Counties. His memoir, ''Defending Rights: A Life in Law and Politics'', was published in 1997.Frank Askin. ''Defending Rights: A Life in Law and Politics''. Humanity Books, 1997. , He is listed in ''Woodward & White's Best Lawyers in America''.

References

Rutgers profile

External links

* https://web.archive.org/web/20060909030012/http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~askin/ 1932 births 2021 deaths City College of New York alumni Rutgers School of Law–Newark alumni Rutgers University alumni Rutgers School of Law–Newark faculty American legal scholars {{US-legal-academic-bio-stub