In Washington Post Op-Ed, Professor Susan Herman Urges Congress, Jurors to Consider “Fraternité” Defense

In a Nov. 15 Washington Post op-ed, Susan Herman, Centennial Professor of Law and president of the ACLU, takes a critical look at the case of Scott Daniel Warren, the Arizona schoolteacher charged with federal felonies for giving food and shelter to two Central American migrants he encountered in the Arizona desert. A similar case in France resulted in an acquittal because judges found that the defendant was honoring the French constitutional value of “fraternité.”

“[F]raternity is not mentioned in the U.S. Constitution or our other foundational documents and rhetoric. Our national motto refers only to ‘liberty and justice for all,’” Herman writes. “What is it that we miss by not including fraternity as one of our defining values?”

Herman argues that, absent a defense based on humanitarian values, Warren can only rely on his Sixth Amendment right to trial by jury. “We can only hope that those 12 Arizona citizens sitting in judgment of Scott Daniel Warren understand that we cannot truly enjoy liberty and equality without respecting fraternity.”

At the Law School, Herman teaches Constitutional Law, Criminal Procedure, Law and Literature, and Terrorism and Civil Liberties. She was elected president of the ACLU in 2008 after serving on the organization's National Board of Directors for 16 years and as general counsel for 10 years. In June, Crain’s New York Business named her to its list of “50 Most Powerful Women in New York.”

Read the op-ed here