The leftward ideological slant of law schools, if left unbalanced, will continue to degrade American law and erode fundamental rights.
John Yoo| Opinion contributor
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Donald Trump’s conviction in May on frivolous criminal charges in New York shows that the legal establishment not only has fallen prey to our extreme politics but also has become a willing coconspirator in it. Lawschooldeans and faculty members should have stepped forward to act as a brake on a radicalized profession.
Sadly, many of our leadinglawschools have lost their bearings. Lawschoolleaders and faculties have steadily disavowed teaching the constitutional text and structure to instead promote the latest fads in diversity, equity and inclusion. Faculty hostility toward true academic freedom, a content-neutral approach to free speech and study of the Constitution’s text has gone so far thatlawschools are now rejecting donors who wish to support research in separation of powers, federalism and constitutional interpretation.
Not surprisingly, their students have become increasingly ignorant of, and disrespectful to, constitutional values – exacerbating the disorder on campus.
A 2023 survey of accreditedlawschools reveals that only 68% requirelawstudents to take a course in constitutionallawfor a mean of 3.6 credit hours, which amounts to one semester of study. By comparison, 100% oflawschools require students to take a course on contracts, with a mean number of 4.7 credit hours. Torts and civil procedure are similarly required by 99.5% oflawschools with mean credit hours of 4.2 and 4.5 credit hours.
No laughing matter: Humorless scolds on the left want to silence your 'offensive' views
Little wonder, then, thatlawstudents − like undergraduates − are displaying open contempt for freedom of speech. In 2022, more than 100 Yalelawstudents screamed, banged walls and hurled insults so that police had to appear. Why? Because a conservativelawyer wanted to discuss a Supreme Court First Amendment case she had argued. Indeed, Yale’s cancel culture has become so notorious that several prominent federal judges have pledged not to hire its graduates.
But it’s not just Yale. Georgetown’slawschoolsuspended the director of its Center for the Constitution, Ilya Shapiro, because he criticized President Joe Biden’s pledge to appoint only a Black woman Supreme Court justice. Shapiro later resigned.
Last year, dozens of StanfordLawSchoolstudents disrupted a speech by federal appellate Judge Kyle Duncan.
Campus protesters invade law school dean's home
Anti-Israeli protesters snuck into the home of mylawschooldean, Erwin Chemerinsky of the University of California, Berkeley, to disrupt a dinner for graduating students in April. They assured Chemerinsky, one of the nation’s leading liberal scholars, that they could treat his private home as a public forum for their protest (you don’t need alawdegree to know they were utterly wrong).
Neither Berkeley nor Stanford expelled any of the students involved in these protests. Friends at otherschools report unrelenting antisemitic harassment of Jewish students and faculty that deans have done little to stop.
This anti-constitutional sentiment afflicts howlawschools deal with financial gifts;lawschoolfaculties are vigorously opposing contributions from conservative donors to promote the study of the Constitution.
In 2021, for example, prominent conservativelawyer and philanthropist Leonard Leo tried to give $25 million to his alma mater, CornellLawSchool, to create a Center for the Study of the Structural Constitution. The gift had no strings regarding what scholarship was to be produced by this center. Nevertheless, thelawfaculty opposed the gift because they worried that the center “would establish a beachhead for far-right scholarship,” according to The Intercept.
Cornell’s reaction confirms thatlawfaculties harbor deep antipathy to conservative participation inlawschoolcurriculum or discourse.
Higher education needs diversity: Young conservatives are told not to attend college. That's shortsighted.
Leo’s attempts to steer the legal academy toward more study and teaching of the Constitution are much needed. A study of diversity in law schools published in 2016 found that only 11% oflawprofessors are Republican.
Lawschools annually spend tens of millions of dollars, collected from progressive individuals and entities, and even taxpayer dollars, to pursue progressive scholarship, course development and litigation. Centers focused on racial, social or gender justice are ubiquitous inlawschools, as are legal clinics designed to advance progressive agendas through litigation.
Law schools' leftward tilt is threat to Americans' rights
The leftward ideological slant oflawschools, if left unbalanced, will continue to degrade Americanlawand erode fundamental rights.
We can’t keep our republic if those entrusted with teaching and learning thelaw − particularly constitutionallaw − evince hostility to open debate and opposing views.
While recent events suggest some awareness of the need for serious reform, much more is needed, and soon.
For the good of the country,lawschools must make a concerted effort to restore ideological diversity in their faculty, programs and scholarship.
John Yoois a distinguishedvisiting professor at the School of Civic Leadership, University of Texas at Austin; a lawprofessor at the University of California at Berkeley, and a nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
