ThomasMore
12-04-2005, 12:15 PM
An e-mail from NewsMax (apparently not on their website).
Harvard Law School Shifting to the Right
One of America's staunchest bastions of liberalism is taking a decided turn toward a more conservative viewpoint - Harvard Law School.
...
"It wasn't that uncommon or unusual to hear the word 'fascist' associated with a mainstream conservative," said Berenson, who served in the White House Counsel's office under President George Bush from 2001 to 2003.
But last year, the law school surprised him by including among its new faculty hires several prominent conservative scholars.
And he gives much of the credit to Elena Kagan, who took over as dean of Harvard Law in 2003.
"In Dean Kagan, Harvard has found somebody who genuinely values intellectual and viewpoint diversity," Berenson told The New York Observer, which carried out an in-depth investigation of the changed atmosphere at Harvard Law.
"[Conservatives have] gone from feeling excluded to included."
Kagan told The Observer: "Our current hiring is all across the board from a political-slash-ideological perspective, and that's exactly what it should be.
"We don't look at politics. We figure that if we really go for the people who are doing the most interesting scholarship and who are the best teachers, we'll get a pretty wide political cross-section - and indeed we have. We're just looking for the best people, the best scholars, the best teachers."
Said professor Charles Fried, the law school's most outspoken conservative: "Once you start hiring a lot of people, you can no longer allow any group or faction to put in a political veto, and you've just got to hire the best people. That's what happened."
...
Recent conservative hires include John Manning, an expert on the separation of powers and the structure of government who advocates a strict reading of the Constitution, and Jack Goldsmith, an international-law expert known for questioning the efficacy of the International Criminal Court.
...
"It's changed. I wouldn't say it's friendly and welcoming, but it's certainly not hostile to the extent that it once was."
(No link available, this came in an e-mail.)
The University of Chicago's Law School has an outstanding reputation for hiring the best professors regardless of political affiliation. Conservatives, liberals and socialists all teach there.
The article above hints that Harvard's Law School might be trying to recover some of its academic credibility.
Harvard Law School Shifting to the Right
One of America's staunchest bastions of liberalism is taking a decided turn toward a more conservative viewpoint - Harvard Law School.
...
"It wasn't that uncommon or unusual to hear the word 'fascist' associated with a mainstream conservative," said Berenson, who served in the White House Counsel's office under President George Bush from 2001 to 2003.
But last year, the law school surprised him by including among its new faculty hires several prominent conservative scholars.
And he gives much of the credit to Elena Kagan, who took over as dean of Harvard Law in 2003.
"In Dean Kagan, Harvard has found somebody who genuinely values intellectual and viewpoint diversity," Berenson told The New York Observer, which carried out an in-depth investigation of the changed atmosphere at Harvard Law.
"[Conservatives have] gone from feeling excluded to included."
Kagan told The Observer: "Our current hiring is all across the board from a political-slash-ideological perspective, and that's exactly what it should be.
"We don't look at politics. We figure that if we really go for the people who are doing the most interesting scholarship and who are the best teachers, we'll get a pretty wide political cross-section - and indeed we have. We're just looking for the best people, the best scholars, the best teachers."
Said professor Charles Fried, the law school's most outspoken conservative: "Once you start hiring a lot of people, you can no longer allow any group or faction to put in a political veto, and you've just got to hire the best people. That's what happened."
...
Recent conservative hires include John Manning, an expert on the separation of powers and the structure of government who advocates a strict reading of the Constitution, and Jack Goldsmith, an international-law expert known for questioning the efficacy of the International Criminal Court.
...
"It's changed. I wouldn't say it's friendly and welcoming, but it's certainly not hostile to the extent that it once was."
(No link available, this came in an e-mail.)
The University of Chicago's Law School has an outstanding reputation for hiring the best professors regardless of political affiliation. Conservatives, liberals and socialists all teach there.
The article above hints that Harvard's Law School might be trying to recover some of its academic credibility.