Annual Dinner March 28, 2008Sonoma Chapter's 2008 Awards Ceremony & Annual Dinner March 28th.
It's Back! The Sonoma Chapter's Awards Ceremony and Annual Dinner will be held Friday, March 28th at the Sebastopol Vets Building. Award winning pro-choice attorney Margaret Crosby's keynote address: Back to the Future: The New Supreme Court Upholds a Criminal Abortion Law. Is the Right to a Legal Abortion in Danger? will explore the first abortion decision from the post-Sandra Day O'Connor U.S. Supreme Court. The Court upheld a criminal abortion law and allows the government to ignore medical science and increase the danger to the health of women seeking abortions. Ms. Crosby will discuss the ruling's impact on doctors and patients, Roe v. Wade, abortion rights in California and other states, and what you can do.
The 2008 Jack Green Civil Liberties Award will be presented to Elizabeth Stinson Director of the Peace & Justice Center of Sonoma County.
Margaret Crosby is a terrific speaker. She has been an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California for 30 years. Ms. Crosby has brought many cases involving reproductive privacy. She argued two cases before the California Supreme Court to protect the reproductive rights of poor women and young women: in 1981, the Court ruled that restrictions on Medi-Cal funding of abortion for indigent women violated the California Constitution (Committee to Defend Reproductive Rights v. Myers), and in 1997, the Court ruled that a state law requiring teenagers to obtain parental or court consent for abortion violated the California Constitution (American Academy of Pediatrics v. Lungren). Ms. Crosby also worked closely with Senator Sheila Kuehl in authoring California's Reproductive Privacy Act, which protects birth control and abortion choices, and the California Comprehensive Sex Health and HIV/AIDS Prevention Education Act, which ensures that sex education in California schools is comprehensive, bias-free and medically accurate. She has headed a project to implement California's sex education law through education and advocacy directed at state agencies and local school districts.
Margaret Crosby has published numerous articles on civil liberties, particularly in the area of state and constitutional law. She is the recipient of several awards for her work on behalf of civil liberties, including the California Women Lawyers Fay Stender award, and "Women Making History" recognition by Senator Barbara Boxer. She was named one of the "Lawyers of the Year" in 1997 for successfully arguing before the California Supreme Court that the statute restricting minors' access to abortion violated the state Constitution.
Margaret Crosby received her J.D. degree from Yale Law School and her A.B. degree magna cum from Bryn Mawr College. She served as a law clerk to Robert F. Peckham, Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.
Once again the dinner will be catered by Art "The Pasta King" Obleto who will be preparing his famous pesto pasta and lasagna dinners. This is always a fun night and is the only fundraising event by the chapter. Help your chapter remain strong by attending. Send us your business card and $30 and you'll let others know of your support with an ad in the dinner program. Be a sponsor and receive 2 dinners, an acknowledgement and ad in the dinner program and have reserved seats up front. Never been an ACLU member? Join the ACLU and the dinner is free! See you there!