The Latest Breaking News from Law School

The Supreme Court looks more like America than it ever has

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has the elite credentials of a prototypical US presidential candidate, from graduating with honours from Yale and Harvard Law School to earning a bronze star for meritorious service in the military. The man seen as a possible 2024 Republican nominee – and a political successor to…

David Lat (Original Jurisdiction) has a characteristically detailed and thoughtful article on the issue. The article links to Judge James Ho's article (based on his speech) in which he explains his thinking behind his boycott of clerk applicants from future Yale Law School classes; and it also links to Judge…

I was a bit perplexed that in defending YLS's commitment to free speech, Dean Gerken noted that "the faculty revised our disciplinary code and adopted a policy prohibiting surreptitious recordings that mirrors policies that the University of Chicago and other peer institutions have put in place to encourage the free…

As a general matter, lawyers tend to be conservative. Not in the sense that they are right-of-center. Indeed, lawyers skew left. Rather, attorneys favor stability: support ideas they know, approved by people they trust, that are communicated through established channels. That preference for the status quo can be altered in…

Two 2019 alumni of Berkeley Law School, Nir Maoz and Olivia Wittels, are concerned that the recent attention given to the "no speakers who support Israel's existence" rule adopted by nine student groups at the law school is giving people a false impression of the school. Jewish and Zionist students…

Just released today: Dear members of our alumni community: Yale Law School is dedicated to building a vibrant intellectual environment where ideas flourish. To foster free speech and engagement, we emphasize the core values of professionalism, integrity, and respect. These foundational values guide everything we do. Over the last six…

Even when there's good reason to criticize universities, we should keep the students out of our battles.

Given David Bernstein's and my posts here on this controversy, I thought I'd pass along this statement from various UC Berkeley Law School faculty members, which was released late last week: We hereby endorse the principle of free and open speech at the law school. This includes the fundamental principle…

[This is a guest post by Prof. Jack Goldsmith of the Harvard Law School.]

Several student groups at UC Berkeley Law School have signed on to a pledge not to invite any speakers—speaking on any subject—if those speakers "have expressed and continued to hold views … in support of Zionism, the apartheid state of Israel, and the occupation of Palestine." Berkeley Dean Erwin Chemerinsky,…