Brian Leiter's Law School Reports

Another academic administrator who doesn't understand her job

Eric Rasmusen is a business professor at Indiana University, Bloomington, who has been a well-known "right-wing nut" (to use the techincal term) on social media for many years.  One of his recent tweets (less obnoxious than some of his others, actually) attracted a lot of attention, leading Provost Lauren Robel to issue this statement.  (Professor Rasmusen's response is here.)   Provost Robel is a lawyer, indeed, the former Dean of the Law School.   Her job is not to attack members of her faculty, however stupid or foolish they may be; her job is to uphold the constitutional rights of faculty (which she professes she will do) and insure compliance with anti-discrimination laws, among other tasks.  We've seen these kinds of mistakes by administrators before, but it's especially disappointing when a lawyer and law professor make them.   For an extended discussion, see this CHE column of mine from a few years ago.

ADDENDUM:  What should Provost Robel have said in response to the media outcry?   This would have sufficed:   "Professor Eric Rasmussen of the Business School speaks only for himself, not for the University.  The First Amendment protects his speech, whether or not the University or members of the public agree with it.  The University will continue to insure that all faculty comply with anti-discrimination laws in the classroom."  It would have taken more courage, and more commitment to the ideal of a university, for Provost Robel to have kept it this brief, but that would have made all the relevant points.

 

The growing importance of "privacy law"

An open letter from scholars and practitioners.

"Penn Carey Law"

In the wake of the outcry from students and alumni, Dean Ruger at Penn has sent a letter to students and alumni announcing that "the Law School will continue to use Penn Law as our short-form name until the start of the 2022-23 academic year, after which we will use Penn Carey Law."  A reasonable compromise.

More on Poland's persecution of Sydney law professor Wojciech Sadurski...

...who has been a vigorous critic of the reactionary regime in his native country.

"Carey Law" may resume being "Penn Law" in shorthand

It would be a wise decision.  (Prior coverage.)

Blast from the past: law school rankings in the 1970s

Here.

Northwestern's Steven Calabresi has not covered himself in glory...

...with this bizarre opinion piece.  These twitter responses are representative, and his colleague Steven Lubet has written at greater length about this.

Some students and alumni of "Penn Law" are not happy about becoming students and alumni of "Carey Law"

They have a point.  The University of Maryland already has a "Carey Law School," making losing the connection to Penn a particularly bad idea.   Why not "Penn Law-Carey"?

$125 million gift to Penn Law...

...which will be named in honor of the donor.  Wow!

Measuring law faculty scholarly impact by citations

Professor Gregory Sisk (St. Thomas) comments.

UPDATE:  And more thoughts from my colleagues Adam Chilton and Jonathan Masur.