Professor of Law; Robert E. Knowlton Scholar; and Director,
Constitutional Litigation Clinic. (Civil Procedure; Election Law;
Public Interest Advocacy.) Professor Askin entered the School of
Law-Newark in September 1963 as a student after an earlier career as
a journalist, and he has been here ever since. He was appointed to the
faculty upon his graduation 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; he still is associated with the clinic. 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
U.S. Supreme Court; challenged the New Jersey State Police 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.
Professor Askin has been a member of the national board of the American
Civil Liberties Union since 1969 and has been one of the ACLU's four
general counsel since 1976. In 1986, he was the (unsuccessful)
Democratic candidate for Congress in New Jersey's 11th District,
covering parts of Essex and Morris counties. His memoir, Defending Rights: A Life in Law and Politics, was published in 1997 by Humanities Press. Professor Askin is listed in White & Woodward's Best Lawyers in America.
