Conservatives Need Not Apply

The Wall Street Journal ^ | 4/1/3 | JOHN O. MCGINNIS and MATTHEW SCHWARTZ

[WaveThatFlag]

From the claims of supporters of diversity one might think that law schools are sparing no effort to make sure that campuses ring with contentious voices.

In its upcoming Supreme Court case, the University of Michigan Law School justifies its very substantial preferences for selected racial and ethnic minorities on the ground that a "critical mass" of African-American and Hispanic students is needed to assure that all students have the benefit of a variety of views and experiences. But professors even more than students set the intellectual tone in university life. Generating ideas is their job. These same law schools almost uniformly lack a "critical mass" of conservatives to offer an alternative to the reigning liberal orthodoxy.

[Henrietta]

Yes, but that doesn't explain why you think they are conservative. The greediest people in my class were leftists. You didn't really answer the question....

[HitmanLV]

I dunno about that. When I graduated Law School I expected the worst (leftist dominance), and was pleased to find out that the split along the student body was close to 50-50, which was healthy. But I don't think the majority of law school grads nationwide are conservative.

[WaveThatFlag]

Tell you what: Find some concrete evidence that most law school graduates are liberals, post it, & we'll discuss this further. Otherwise, you are just being argumentative & we're wasting our time here.

[HitmanLV]

U of Chicago has a 'conservative' reputation, in the broadest sense. Other than that, I don't know of any.

[Iron Eagle]

Notre Dame is conservative. George Mason, now ranked number 40 in the Country out of 180 Law Schools, is probably one of the most Conservative of any non-private law schools. It's faculty is conservative/libertarian. The student body tends to be about as conservative as one can find in law schools.

The Board of Visitors (Governors), appointed to run the University as a whole, are very conservative and have their roots at the Law School . Ed Meese is the current Rector, and William Kristol served on their recently as well. (I served the Board as a student rep chosen by the Visitors)

At 9K per-yer, or so, George Mason Law is one of the best bargains in the nation, and one of the better conservative law schools.

[HitmanLV]

Your friend has great insight! :-)

[BlessedBeGod]

I understand Tom Monaghan, the ownr of the Domino's Pizza chain, is in the process of establishing a conservative oriented law school.

He already did it -- several years ago. It's called Ave Maria.

[Notwithstanding]

Ave Maria School of Law is an orthodox Catholic law school.

There is NO campus ACLU or Democrat Party student organization.

The first three student organizations: a pro-life organization, a Federalist Society chpater, and a student chapter of the Republican National Lawyer's Association.

The women students have a women's group whose mission statement focuses on Pope John Paul II's descriptions of authentic femininty - the antithesis of NOW.

One of the dean's is a leader of the Nationa Lawyers Association (a group that rejects the ABA for its partisan stance.

The four professors who founded the school each have at least 5 kids in their family. Most of the additional faculty also have very large families. Two faculty families homeschool. Most families attend very conservative Catholi schools.

The women who work on campus must wear below the knee skirts. Men who work on campus must wear a jacket and tie - normally a suit.

Robert Bork is on the tenured faculty.

University of Michigan (also in Ann Arbor) frequently calls the school to get token conservatives for debates.

Mood on campus is EXTREMELY supportive of President Bush - and we discuss in detail that there is no religiou or moral duty to agree with the pope on this issue.

[Notwithstanding]

And most of us can spell, but we tend to type fast while surfing the net and posting on FR.

[666beast]

i wonder if jeanne garofalo will be outraged by this blacklisting.

[Mamzelle]

Don't forget that you also need to make the top ten percent. The other ninety percent just exist to prop up the ten...

[WaveThatFlag]

A guy walks into a bar and says "I've had it! All lawyers are a$$holes!"
A guy at the end of the bar says "Hey!!! I resent that!!!"
The first guy says "Sorry. Are you a lawyer?"
The second guy says "No. I'm an a$$hole."

[WaveThatFlag]

Acutally the punch line goes :
"Three reasons: "The scientist were starting to feel sorry for the rats, they're afraid of running out of rats, and it turns out there are some things you just can't get a rat to do! "

[homeagain balkansvet]

Sorry. I was being facecious, did not mean that seriously.

I was a member of a newspaper at a nominally Catholic law school on the East Coast. After our editor in chief ran an article that graphically denounced abortion, the newspaper was closed by the administration, purged of all active Catholics, and turned over to a new editorial staff who thought that Seinfeld was God (at least, they purged all references to religion and replaced them with Seinfeld quotes, particular the Soup Nazi quote about 'no soup for you.') We were publicly identified as 'enemies of the people' and treated as pariahs for the remainder of our stay there.

Ugly memories of an ugly time.

[WaveThatFlag]

I'm sorry to hear that. However, it sounds to me like you were more the victim of a liberal administration than student body. The fact that the administration dealt so harshly with those who were openly conservative is a clear indication of my point. You probably had no idea how conservative your classmates really were. I remember working in an office where "political correctness" led me to keep our opinions to ourselves. Then one day, somebody got pissed off an voiced his Conservative opinon on an issue that Liberals had gotten just flat-out wrong (I think it was the OJ trial). By the end of the day, it turned out that 90% of the office was pro-life, anti-affitmative action, and pro death penalty. On the matter of the current President of The United States at the time, the feeling was unanimous: We all hated his guts.

[homeagain balkansvet]

I'm sorry to hear that. However, it sounds to me like you were more the victim of a liberal administration than student body. >>

I wish I could agree. But, no. They held three all-school 'special action meetings' to 'discuss the challenge to our community' presented by the newspaper. Each meeting had more than 200 attendees of whom 95% of the speakers called for our heads. The reorganization meeting that voted us into oblivion had almost 100 present.

The student body was as culpable as the administration. The effect this fight had on me still remains several years later. Not pleasant.

[CatoRenasci]

Well, that's true if you want a clerkship, or the 'hottest' Boston, San Francisco or DC firms, and you went to a school other than Stanford, Harvard, Yale, Chicago, Columbia or Berkeley. At those schools, top 1/4 will get you the above, top 1/2 will get you top NYC majors. At the other top 20 schools, you need top 1/4 and law review or top 10% for the top NYC majors, or top regional firms.