[js1138]

If this is pushed, professors are going to refuse to write letters of recommendation en masse because they're afraid of litigation.

I can't say if this will happen, but in my experience, students always have "soul mate" professors that get asked for recommendations. Some professors are just a_holes and write letters based purely on whether they like a person. The whole business reeks of bias and favortism.Having said this, the recommendation should not ever comment on anything except whether the student mastered the course material and avoided committing any obvious felonies.

[Catspaw]

Because letters of recommendation are voluntary and indeed, purely arbitrary, the professors can and do write letters of recommendation for whomever they want. I would've have asked a prof with whom I didn't agree (or intensely loathed & vice versa) for a letter of recommendation. I would've gone to a prof who would portray me in the most flattering light.

[Nebullis]

Having said this, the recommendation should not ever comment on anything except whether the student mastered the course material and avoided committing any obvious felonies.

That's what grades are for. Recommendations go beyond that or they would be of no use whatsoever.