From the Yale Daily News (via How Appealing):
“I would say I’m a centrist, but when I got to law school I found myself to be conservative [by comparison],” Muzin said. “I find that the student body here is ultra-liberal and extremely intolerant; I realized it shortly after I started here.”The more things change, the more they stay the same. I also enjoyed my time at Yale Law, never felt “intimidated,” and didn’t think it was a bad environment for a libertarian like myself, largely because the faculty was quite tolerant, and often well-versed in free market and libertarian arguments even when they disagreed with them. The students, however, were, as a group, extremely left-wing, and extremely intolerant. A classmate of mine, now a law professor, told me recently that half of my first-year class wouldn’t speak to me first semester of law school, for political reasons. I thought half sounded like a lot, though I knew I was “boycotted” by some at the time. I had always been mildly curious as to why (it didn’t bother me much at the time because my mother was gravely ill in NYC that semester, so my social life consisted of trips to Mt. Sinai Hospital in any event), so I asked this classmate, who was himself quite left-wing, but always friendly. He responded, “Well, it’s what you said in Contracts.” “That’s strange,” I replied, “I don’t remember Contracts class being that controversial; we didn’t discuss any of the truly hot button issues for the left–such as race, abortion, gay rights–in Contracts–and, in any event, my (libertarian) views on such issues wouldn’t have been so objectionable to them, anyway. So what did I say in Contracts class that led to my ostracism?” He said, and I swear he seemed at least 80% serious, “well, you kept saying that contracts should be enforced!”But Cooke said he has not felt isolated as a self-proclaimed conservative and does not think the Law School is a “bad environment” for those who share his views.
“I’ve really enjoyed my time here. I’ve never felt terribly intimidated,” Cooke said.
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