Gun sales are said to have increased dramatically since September 11 — to the bemusement of some, who point out that guns won’t protect us from terrorists armed with viruses or nuclear bombs. Still, it’s long been clear that many Americans feel reassured by firearms; and if you fear the civil disorder that further attacks […]
Wendy Kaminer
Wendy Kaminer is a former senior correspondent for The American Prospect and a contributing editor at The Atlantic Monthly. She also serves on the national board of the American Civil Liberties Union.
A lawyer, social critic, and former Guggenheim Fellow, she writes about law, liberty, feminism, religion, and popular culture. Her latest book is Free for All: Defending Liberty in America Today. Other books she has written include Sleeping with Extra-Terrestrials: The Rise of Irrationalism and Perils of Piety; True Love Waits: Essays and Criticism; It's All the Rage: Crime and Culture; I'm Dysfunctional, You're Dysfunctional: The Recovery Movement and Other Self-Help Fashions; and A Fearful Freedom: Women's Flight from Equality. Kaminer's articles and reviews have appeared in many other publications, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Nation, and Newsweek, and her commentaries have aired on National Public Radio.
Before embarking on her writing career, Kaminer practiced law as a staff attorney in the New York Legal Aid Society and the New York City Mayor's Office.
Wendy Kaminer retains copyrights to all her articles.
Posted inFeatures
Ignorant Bliss
In the locker room, two women are discussing the war against terrorism. They agree that Attorney General John Ashcroft is right not to reveal information about the 1,000-plus people detained since September 11. The trouble is, “we’re too soft” on the detainees, one opines. “No, the trouble is that a lot of people detained are […]
Posted inFeatures
Fathers in Court
I t’s often difficult for a feminist to garner much sympathy for the fathers’ rights movement. At first glance it seems, at best, redundant. Fathers monopolized familial rights and power for much of our history. Nineteenth-century common law gave men the right to control and the duty to support children born in marriage, while women […]
Posted inFeatures
Victims Versus Suspects
In the 1960s, the Supreme Court recognized that people accused of crimes were imbued with constitutional rights, which the states were obliged to respect. In the course of a few years, the Warren Court applied the exclusionary rule to the states, prohibiting the introduction of evidence seized in violation of the Fourth Amendment; it fashioned […]
Posted inLaw and Justice
Games Prosecutors Play
Ken Starr was no exception. Over the last 30 years, abetted by the Supreme Court, prosecutors have acquired fearsome power in the form of largely untrammeled authority and a bag of sneaky tricks.
Posted inFeatures
Mama’s Delicate Condition
Female politicians have not fared particularly well in the Commonwealth ofMassachusetts. We have sent no women to Congress in recent years and have neverelected a female senator, governor, or attorney general; the state legislaturehas never been led by a female senate president or speaker of the house. So asRepublican Lieutenant Governor Jane Swift prepares to […]
Posted inFeatures
Virtual Offensiveness
More than 15 years have passed since antilibertarianfeminists declared “pornography” a violation of women’s civil rights, allegingthat it demeaned and objectified women. In the 1980s, the antiporn movementenjoyed a lot of publicity and a little local legislative success. But federalcourts quickly struck down antiporn ordinances that classified some sexuallyexplicit speech as discriminatory and offered women […]
Posted inCivil Rights in America
Will Class Trump Gender?: The New Assault on Feminism
“Goodbye, feminism,” say some critics who insist that women can prosper as rugged individualists. Funny thing, the new antifeminists sound a lot like the old laissez-faire conservatives.
Posted inFeatures
Equal Rights Postponement
Ask state and federal legislators if they believethat legal rights should be extended or withheld on the basis of sex. Most wouldprobably say no, and many of them would be lying. Adoption of the Equal RightsAmendment to the U.S. Constitution remains a feminist fantasy. Its simpledeclaration of fairness–“Equality of rights under the law shall not […]
Posted inFeatures
Politics of Identity
George W. Bush opposes affirmative action, at leastintheory; in practice he has an affirmative-action record that might have made BillClinton proud. According to Time magazine, Bush “has appointed more women to positions of power and influence than any president in history.” He even has a diversity policy that requires 30 percent of administration jobs to […]