<img width="235" height="272" class="FloatRight" alt="hamermesh235px" src="/site/files/oldnewsfiles/hamermesh235px.jpg">A member of the Delaware affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union since he came to Delaware in 1976, as well as a member of the affiliate’s board of directors for almost 25 years, Ruby R. Vale Professor of Corporate and Business Law <a href="/Academics/Faculty/ProfilesDe/HamermeshLawrenceA.aspx">Lawrence A. Hamermesh </a>says of his service to the ACLU, “It's been one of the most rewarding things I've done.  What's wonderful about the ACLU is its devotion to the idea that we are all members of some minority, and we all have a basic individual dignity and integrity - whether in our religious beliefs, political affiliations, ethnic and cultural allegiances, or sexual or gender roles - that need to be protected from impairment by government action at the instance of the majority. For me, religious identity is what originally moved me to grasp and support this idea, but the ACLU has taught me that individual freedom and dignity reach many other areas.”<br><br>On Wednesday, October 7th, the Delaware Chapter of the ACLU will honor Professor Hamermesh along with Thomas J. Allingham II, Esq., a corporate litigation partner at Skadden LLP, as recipients of the 2009 Gerald E. Kandler Award at the 24th Gerald E. Kandler Memorial Award Dinner at the Hotel du Pont at 5:30. The Gerald E. Kandler Award is presented each year in memory of Gerald E. Kandler, Esq., who was President of the Delaware ACLU from 1971 to 1985. The award is presented to Delawareans who follow in the footsteps of Kandler by fighting for civil liberties. “It's an honor named after a truly remarkable lawyer and human being who escaped as a child from Nazi Germany, never forgot the lessons of that tragedy, and balanced work as a successful lawyer for DuPont with a selfless devotion to creating in Delaware an organization designed to protect the freedoms that he saw so savagely trampled upon as a child,” observes Professor Hamermesh.<br><br>Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and best-selling author Ron Suskind will deliver the keynote address at the award dinner. The senior national affairs writer for <em>The Wall Street Journal</em> from 1993 to 2000 and currently a writer for <em>Time Magazine</em>, <em>The New York Times Magazine</em>, <em>Esquire</em>, and the <em>Wall Street Journal</em>, Mr. Suskind has produced several works of nonfiction including his recent New York Times bestseller <em>The Way of the World: A Story of Truth and Hope in an Age of Extremism</em>.<br><br>Calling the award “an awesome honor”, Professor Hamermesh states, “Most of all, it's an honor to be a part of an organization that every day, in big ways and many more smaller ways, helps promote the human rights that we strive to perfect under our Constitution.”