ACLU picks law scholar as its next president

NEW YORK - The American Civil Liberties Union elected a new president yesterday, choosing a constitutional law scholar who said she would reach out to African-Americans and to religious groups that have often viewed the ACLU more as a foe than a friend.

"We plan to reach out to communities where the ACLU is not well-known or not well-understood," said Brooklyn Law School professor Susan Herman, the organization's general counsel until the vote.

"There's a very widespread misimpression that the ACLU opposes religion" despite its efforts to protect rights to religious expression, Herman said, adding that she was surprised "there aren't more people in the African-American community that believe the ACLU is their organization."