ACLU OF MICHIGAN OPENS ITS FIRST OFFICE IN GRAND RAPIDS

GRAND RAPIDS - As she opens the American Civil Liberties Union's
(ACLU) first office in West Michigan, Miriam Aukerman still doesn't
have an Internet connection. Most of her files and law books are
still in boxes.

But the 41-year-old lawyer is making her presence known.

Aukerman is one of the lawyers representing a man who sued the city
of Wyoming because it will not allow him to grow medical marijuana
under a state law approved by state voters in 2008.

She also is advising Grand Rapids parents who were not allowed to be
involved in their children's classroom activities because of their
past felony convictions.

"I expect to work on a really broad range of issues," said Aukerman,
who recently moved into an office at 89 Ionia Ave NW.

"Having staff on the ground will make the ACLU more responsive to
issues in West Michigan," Aukerman said.

"Part of it is making the ACLU more accessible to the community and
building bridges to other agencies in Grand Rapids."

Kary Moss, executive director of the ACLU's Michigan chapter, said
the new office was made possible through grant funding from the national ACLU.

"We would have loved to have done it sooner, but we didn't have the
resources," said Moss, whose Detroit-based group also has a
one-person legislative operation in Lansing.

"Grand Rapids is obviously a very important city in the state," Moss
said. "It's a growing city and becoming increasingly diverse."

Aukerman has been a West Michigan resident since 2001, when she
followed her husband, Charles Pazdernik, to Grand Valley State
University, where he chairs the Classics Department.

The daughter of a minister in the Church of the Brethren, Aukerman
spent her early childhood in the small town of Sunfield, south of Ionia.

When she was four, her parents moved to Maryland, where she grew up
on a pick-your-own strawberry farm. Her mother was a schoolteacher.

After graduating from Cornell University, Aukerman studied for two
years at Oxford University in England before working for a German
foundation in Bonn and Berlin.

Aukerman worked for the Ford Foundation in New York before getting
her law degree from New York University in 2000.

Working for Legal Aid of Western Michigan, Aukerman said she
specialized in re-entry issues for clients who were being released from prison.

As the ACLU's only paid staff person in Grand Rapids, Aukerman said
she expects to collaborate with local lawyers and other agencies. She
also will have access to the ACLU's resources on a national and state
level, she said.

While some of its critics believe the ACLU is a liberal organization,
Aukerman said the group works on all sides of the political spectrum
whenever the freedoms in the Bill of Rights come under fire.

For example, the state ACLU represented a Sterling Heights high
school student who was prevented from including a Bible verse in her
high school yearbook in 2004

While ACLU lawyers respond to all of the complaints that come their
way, the group does not take up every cause, Aukerman said. "We try
to focus on issues that involve the civil liberties of a lot of
people," she said.

Aukerman said persons want the ACLU to consider their cases should
begin at the state website: www.aclumich.org and click on the "Get Help" icon.