Baltimore's inner-city classrooms familiar to that of Kansas City's

Daily Record, The (Baltimore), Apr 27, 2007 by Cynthia Dipasquale

Twenty years ago, Susan Goering left Kansas City for Baltimore, becoming legal director of the ACLU of Maryland Inc.

Seven years out of law school, her experience in private practice included a "Brown v. Board of Education-style" class action aimed at desegregating Kansas City, Mo., public schools.

What she saw in Baltimore's inner-city classrooms looked somewhat familiar. Her response, though, marked a change in how the American Civil Liberties Union chapter would come to operate.

"We began looking beyond individual cases," Goering said. "We started looking at how to change things structurally - how to change the legal landscape, if you will." For example, she said, "instead of looking at individual cases of race discrimination, we also began looking at structures and structural reasons."

In the education case, Goering formed partnerships between the ACLU and advocates in Annapolis, and in 1994 sued to force the state to adequately fund public education.

Since then, the ACLU has filed suit against the Maryland State Police alleging racial profiling of black drivers; against the city of Baltimore and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for maintaining segregated public housing; and against the state for denying marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

While some of the cases are still in the courts, Goering considers the outcomes positive:

*On education, the state passed legislation to ensure adequate public school funding (known as Thornton funding after Dr. Alvin Thornton, who chaired the 1999 commission that recommended a $1.3 billion increase).

*The state police revised policies for stopping vehicles on state highways; now, troopers are required to record the race of the drivers they stop.

*The federal judge in the housing case found institutional segregation still exists and is weighing the remedy.

*In the same-sex marriage case, the plaintiffs prevailed in Baltimore City Circuit Court. The case is awaiting a final decision by the Court of Appeals.

"The ACLU under Susan's leadership has shown an exceptional understanding of how legal issues interact with the social and political environment, and as a result, the impact of their cases has been transformational in major fields that affect everybody," said Michael A. Sarbanes, executive director of the Citizens Housing and Planning Association. The Baltimore-based advocacy group has worked with the ACLU on several low-income housing initiatives.

That breadth of understanding is rare for the ACLU and the region, Sarbanes added.

C. Christopher Brown, a partner at Brown, Goldstein & Levy LLP and general counsel to the ACLU chapter, noted that Goering "almost single-handedly has changed the face of the ACLU from a small-time operator to a major player in Maryland."

A member of the ACLU of Maryland board for more than 30 years, Brown was involved in hiring Goering.

"When Susan came, we just had a handful of cases and most were narrow First Amendment issues," he said. "Since Susan came, we've broadened the caseload to also include a lot of discrimination issues, African-American rights, gay rights, and matters such as that."

Out of a 'dream'

The ACLU of Maryland was truly a small operation when Goering joined as legal director in the late 1980s. She likes to joke she was director of "no one."

Since then, the organization's staff has expanded from three to 15. Membership has multiplied from around 6,000 in the 1990s to more than 14,000, much of that growth coming in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

Goering herself became executive director 10 years ago.

Her upbringing in central Kansas was "steeped" in social justice, Goering recalls. Her family belonged to a progressive wing of the Mennonite church and her childhood took her through the era of 1960s activism and the Vietnam War. She vividly recalls hearing Dr. Martin Luther King proclaim, in 1963, that he had a dream.

"I was in sixth grade during Martin Luther King's speech," she said. "And I heard that and I remember feeling that I was called to be a lawyer who did civil rights work."

She ended up studying law at the University of Kansas and, except for a few years after law school working for the federal government and a private law practice, has been with the ACLU for most of her career.

Even so, Goering is reluctant to take much credit for the organization's success, saying it rightly belongs to her staff.

"It's really a labor of love for the people who work here," she said, with strong emotion. "They love their work, they love their clients, and it's a friendly place to work."

She also attributes the ACLU's success to lawyers outside the organization who donate their time on cases. In the 2005-2006 budget year, in-kind legal contributions totaled $3.6 million - a full three-quarters of the ACLU chapter's operating budget.

Goering's leadership has drawn praise even from her former opponents.

"I think Maryland is very lucky to have Susan Goering," said Carmen M. Shepard, a former deputy attorney general who defended the state against cases brought by the ACLU for 16 years, including the education and state trooper cases. "In every single litigation in which she filed suit, she had identified a real problem. I think she helped us identify issues and she put the government to the test to make sure there were solutions."