Religious Law Schools and Political Diversity.–

Adam Litvak has an article in the New York Times describing Jerry Falwell’s Liberty Law School.

Excerpt:

The new law schools say they are a sort of counterweight to the views that dominate the legal academy.



“The prevailing orthodoxy at the elite law schools is an extreme rationalism that draws a strong distinction between faith and reason,” said Bruce W. Green, Liberty’s dean.



The claim that professors at the leading law schools tilt to the left is supported by statistics. According to a forthcoming study of 21 top law schools from 1991 to 2002 by John McGinnis, a law professor at Northwestern University, approximately 80 percent of the professors at those schools who made campaign contributions primarily supported Democrats, while 15 percent primarily supported Republicans.



Peter H. Schuck, a law professor at Yale, where 92 percent of faculty political contributions went to Democrats, said Dean Green was right to question whether religious perspectives are welcomed at mainstream law schools.



“There is a sort of soft tolerance of competing views,” Professor Schuck, who described himself as a political moderate, said, “but no real interest in exposing students to seriously developed contrary points of view that proceed from a strong faith-based perspective. Fundamentalism is derided.”

I was interviewed by Litvak for the story but said nothing worth quoting.

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