Rodney Smolla, previously a prominent law professor and dean of Washington & Lee School of Law, has resigned from his position as president of Furman University for personal reasons. According to this story, he is recently divorced from his wife of fourteen years. Smolla will be a visiting professor at Duke and Georgia law schools […]
Archive | Academia
Why Did Law Professors Misunderestimate the Lawsuits against PPACA?
I quite enjoyed reading David Hyman’s new article of this title. It vividly illustrates a point that I tried to make three weeks ago at the Intellectual Diversity Conference at Harvard Law School (Panel 2 – 47:00) — which is that the liberal echo chamber of elite law schools has made them startlingly poor at […]
Harvard Federalist Society Conference: Intellectual Diversity and the Legal Academy
Last week, I posted about a conference at Harvard on the topic of intellectual diversity in the legal academy. I’m pleased to report that the conference was a great success, well conceived and well executed by the excellent students of the Harvard chapter of the Federalist Society. If nothing else, it succeeded in shining a […]
Harvard Federalist Society: Intellectual Diversity and the Legal Academy
The Harvard Chapter of the Federalist Society is hosting a very important conference tomorrow on intellectual diversity in the legal academy. Many people realize that legal academia “leans” to the left. But even alumni — indeed, even major donors — are often unaware of the extent of the imbalance. At Georgetown, for example, the ratio […]
College Admissions and Affirmative Action for the Well-Off
Instapundit links to this Daily Beast piece: These days, a nearly-perfect GPA is the barest requisite for an elite institution. You’re also supposed to be a top notch athlete and/or musician, the master of multiple extracurriculars. Summers should preferably be spent doing charitable work, hopefully in a foreign country, or failing that, at least attending […]
How I Became a (Minor) Victim of Academic Plagiarism
Today, the Baltimore Sun published a detailed story about Towson University Professor Benjamin Neil, who has been accused of numerous instances of plagiarism, especially in a 2012 article on Kelo v. City of New London and post-Kelo eminent domain reform which has since been withdrawn by the Journal of Academic and Business Ethics: A longtime […]
Chemerinsky on Color Blindness
By David Bernstein on March 19, 2013 11:37 am in Academia, Affirmative Action, Fisher v. University of Texas
Atlantic: Erwin Chemerinsky, founding dean of the University of California, Irvine School of Law, said that the concept of colorblindness holds great rhetorical appeal but that “there is no basis for concluding that the 14th Amendment equal protection clause requires colorblindness.” In drafting the 14th Amendment, he said, Congress recognized “an enormous difference between a […]
Judge Douglas Ginsburg Joins the George Mason Law School Faculty
The official announcement from the law school: Judge Douglas H. Ginsburg will join the George Mason law faculty as professor of law beginning in July of 2013. Judge Ginsburg, who is currently a professor of law at New York University School of Law, will continue also to serve as senior circuit judge of the United […]
Since We’re Talking About Ideological Diversity in the Academy….
I had a relatively recent conversation about this with a very prominent member of the Yale Law School faculty. I mentioned that in my lifetime I don’t think that Yale has ever hired a “right of center” constitutional law scholar. (Note: not my career, my lifetime; please note that Bork was hired before my lifetime […]
Conservatives in the Academy
In light of my post on Steven Hayward’s appointment at the University of Colorado, I thought it might be worthwhile re-posting some earlier thoughts on the general subject. Here are some thoughts from a post of mine from 2003, prompted by this David Brooks column. “LONELY CAMPUS VOICES”: Today’s David Brooks column struck a chord. […]
Conservative Studies at the University of Colorado
Last week, the University of Colorado announced that Steven Hayward has accepted a one-year appointment as the university’s first “Visiting scholar in Conservative Though and Policy.” Hayward, who holds a Ph.D. in American Studies from Claremont Graduate School is the author of several books, including volumes on Reagan and Churchill, and has held positions at the […]
Clearing the Air in the Faculty Lounge
Today all of The Faculty Lounge’s permanent bloggers posted a notice stating that none of them have ever disclosed identifying information about anonymous or pseudonymous bloggers to any third party. The post comes in response to allegations by Paul Campos that someone at TFL had given such information about a pseudonymous commenter to Brian Leiter. […]
Color Me Skeptical
Co-blogger Jonathan Adler quotes Professor Herbert Hovenkamp of the University of Iowa Law School, below, as stating: The overwhelming majority of my colleagues believe in diversity in faculty hiring, and I believe most would include ideological diversity of both right and left. Some would regard diversity more as a “tie breaker” for choosing among people […]
Iowa’s Prof. Hovenkamp Comments on Dismissal of Ideological Bias Suit
The University of Iowa College of Law’s Professor Herbert Hovenkamp, offers the following statement on the dismissal of Teresa Wagner’s lawsuit against the school alleging ideological bias in hiring. While the Wagner viewpoint discrimination trial involving the University of Iowa College of Law has generated considerable attention, the only principals who have spoken to the […]
Ideological Bias Suit Against Iowa Law Dismissed
Teresa Wagner sued the University of Iowa School of Law alleging she was passed over for a faculty position due to ideological bias. The jury rejected some of her claims but deadlocked on another. On Friday, a federal district court dismissed Wagner’s one remaining claim and rejected Wagner’s motion for a new trial. Here are […]