Three Law School Articles
Of interest to law professors, lawyers, and curious individuals, NAS has recently published three articles about law schools:
“Conferring Privilege: DOJ, Law Schools, and the New Politics of Race” examines the Association of American Law Schools’ efforts to prevent racial colorblindness.
“’They So Despise Her Politics’ – Do Conservative Faculty Candidates Get a Fair Shake?” presents documents in the lawsuit of an unsuccessful faculty candidate for a position at the University of Iowa College of Law who believes she was denied the appointment because of her politics.
“Potemkin Admissions: Law Professors Propose to Hide LSAT Data” exposes a movement to persuade law schools to withhold LSAT scores from U.S. News and World Report. The idea is to make it harder for the public to see how much the pursuit of racial preferences drags down the quality of admissions.
“They So Despise Her Politics” has received attention from the Daily Iowan, Instapundit, TaxProf Blog, and One Minute Lawyer.
Regarding Peter Wood’s article on the stance taken by the American Association of Law Schools against changing toward a colorblind, racially neutral society, is it fair to note that lots of jobs for lawyers are connected to incessant litigation over alleged discrimination, “disparate impact,” and the like? Yes, I think it is. The AALS gains from keeping the United States a nation that boils and seethes with racial animosity.
It’s also worth noting that the AALS would have little or no power if we still had a free market in legal education, as we once did. The efforts by the American Bar Association toward cartelization and the use of law school as a barrier to entry beginning in the 1920s made graduation from an ABA accredited law school exceedingly important. It should not be.