Posted December 8, 2014 9:21 PM ET; Last updated May 28, 2015 4:37 PM ET
That does it. I'm petitioning my landlord, and my credit card company for an extension from paying rent, and monthly card payment. Too much emotional and psychological stress, from this national media propaganda campaign. The University of Virginia responded to a report in Rolling Stone magazine by suspending fraternities on campus. Who needs laws and rules? Who needs courts and police? Universities don't need no stinkin' laws. Media drives the nation and Harvard Law School. This campaign shows the strength of the current student body and faculty in their willingness to uphold laws and the constitution of the United States. The law school community prioritizes fairness and justice for all. Who needs the law? What is it that you expect law students and law professors to support? What is law anyway? "Just words." as Harvard Law School graduate, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick would say. If the current crop of students cannot maintain rational thought processes after reading political propaganda, what can be expected of them when they are practicing law? Does relaxed rectitude explain the popularity of the Obama-Holder doctrine, which permits selected individuals to ignore inconvenient laws?
[From article]
The Texas SCV's design caused a commotion because the organization's logo includes the Confederate battle flag. The Texas committee that approves specialty plates approved the SCV plate before it disapproved it because an official considered the plate "controversial." The Texas Transportation Code says that the state may refuse to create a plate "if the design might be offensive to any member of the public." Yes, any.
A district court rejected the SCV's contention that this decision was unconstitutional, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit held that specialty plates are private speech, so the state had violated the First Amendment by engaging in viewpoint discrimination against the SCV.
Texas is appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court, probably in vain. The SCV's brief notes that "every circuit to address a specialty plate program enabling private parties to submit their own specialty plate designs has held that the plates constitute private speech, the First Amendment applies, and regulation has to be viewpoint neutral."
[. . .]
The new entitlement aims to spare the people this burden. At many American colleges and universities, where thinking goes to hibernate, freedom of expression is restricted for the purpose of sparing the delicate sensibilities of the most exquisitely sensitive people on the campuses. The First Amendment is construed to stipulate that there shall be no abridgement of free speech — unless the speech annoys, saddens, angers, dismays or otherwise discombobulates the emotional equilibrium or intellectual serenity of any listener.
Inevitably, this entitlement is expanded to include the right to assume a fetal position and be absolved of burdens if news of some event in the wider world distresses some students. So, Columbia University Law School recently allowed students to postpone final exams if these frail flowers felt that their performance would be "impaired" because they had been traumatized by the fact that grand juries in Ferguson, Mo., and New York did not indict police officers in cases involving Michael Brown and Eric Garner.
Columbia evidently is training lawyers for a United States so tranquil it will not need any lawyers.
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/will121814.php3
A license to debate: State takes aim at the First Amendment
By George Will
Published December 18, 2014
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[From article]
Similar requests have been made at Georgetown Law and Columbia Law School.
[. . .]
The wave of activism was sparked by the decisions of Ferguson and Staten Island grand juries not to indict two police officers in separate cases that led to the deaths of two unarmed black men.
http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2014/12/10/law-students-petition-school/
In Light of Grand Jury Decisions, Law Students Petition for Exam Extensions
By TYLER S. OLKOWSKI,
Harvard CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
December 10, 2014
* * *
Eric "White People Are Cowards" Holder's Law Degree Is From Columbia University School of Law.
Updated December 9, 2014 10:34 PM ET
[From article]
Columbia University Law School has granted exam extensions to students who feel under stress due to the failure of Grand Juries to indict in the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner.
Now students at my alma mater, Harvard Law School, are demanding similar treatment, as well as excoriating the HLS administration for not publicly feeling their pain.
The Coalition at Harvard Law School created a website for the exchange of letters.
I have confirmed with the Harvard Law communications office that the letters are authentic.
[. . .]
[Group Signers]
Harvard Law School Affinity Group Coalition:
Harvard Asian Pacific American Law Students Association, Executive Board
Harvard Black Law Students Association
Harvard Middle Eastern Law Students Association
Harvard Muslim Law Students Association
Harvard Native American Law Students Association
La Alianza
Lambda
Supero
In support:
ACLU
Harvard Law School Chapter Advocates for Human Rights
Harvard Defenders
Harvard Environmental Law Society
Harvard Journal on Racial and Ethnic Justice
Harvard Law School Feminist Coalition
Harvard Law School Justice for Palestine
Harvard Law Students for Reproductive Justice
Harvard Law Students for Sustainable Investment
Harvard Prison Legal Assistance Project
Harvard Student Representative Board, Executive Officers
National Lawyers Guild
Students for Inclusion
The Harvard Asia Law Society
Unbound: Harvard Journal of the Legal Left
http://legalinsurrection.com/2014/12/harvard-law-students-also-demand-exam-delay-due-to-ferguson-and-garner/
Harvard Law students also demand exam delay due to Ferguson and Garner
Posted by William A. Jacobson
Monday, December 8, 2014 at 5:15pm
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[From article]* * *
Columbia Law School is permitting students claiming to be impaired due to the emotional impact of recent non-indictments in the Michael Brown and Eric Garner matters to postpone taking their final exams.
[. . .]
Columbia Law School is permitting students claiming to be impaired due to the emotional impact of recent non-indictments in the Michael Brown and Eric Garner matters to postpone taking their final exams.
[. . .]
But anyone so unstable as to be incapable of preparing for and taking exams due to grand jury proceedings not involving themselves or their families should be given an indefinite leave of absence in which to get better.
What is really behind the request for postponement of exams? I suspect it’s the fact that the students in question would rather protest with their friends and perhaps disrupt New York City than read cases, review lecture notes, or whatever it is that students do these days to prepare for exams. In addition, the students in question presumably want the law school to take their side on what they take to be a political question. In other words, this is, in part, a power play.
Who are these professors and what are they likely to say to support traumatized students? The law school’s website answers the first question.
Katherine Franke’s research centers on U.S. racial history; feminist theory; queer theory; sexual and gender rights in global contexts. Her principal areas of teaching are feminist and critical race theory; law and culture; civil rights law; critical legal thought. She is the director of the Center for Gender and Sexuality Law.
Conrad Johnson directed the law school’s fair housing clinic, which specialized in civil rights litigation. He is co-creator of the law school’s first distance-learning offering, the seminar in race-conscious remedies (such as racial quotas). The law school’s website says that he’s a nationally recognized leader in diversity in legal education.
Olatunde Johnson came to Columbia after serving with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the ACLU National Legal Department, for which she was senior consultant on racial justice. Her areas of expertise include anti-discrimination Law, equal protection law, and “public interest” law practice.
Susan Sturm is a professor of law and “social responsibility.” Her areas of expertise include employment discrimination and race and gender.
[. . .]
Columbia Law School is permitting students claiming to be impaired due to the emotional impact of recent non-indictments in the Michael Brown and Eric Garner matters to postpone taking their final exams.
[. . .]
But anyone so unstable as to be incapable of preparing for and taking exams due to grand jury proceedings not involving themselves or their families should be given an indefinite leave of absence in which to get better.
What is really behind the request for postponement of exams? I suspect it’s the fact that the students in question would rather protest with their friends and perhaps disrupt New York City than read cases, review lecture notes, or whatever it is that students do these days to prepare for exams. In addition, the students in question presumably want the law school to take their side on what they take to be a political question. In other words, this is, in part, a power play.
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2014/12/not-a-parody.php
POSTED ON DECEMBER 6, 2014
POSTED ON DECEMBER 6, 2014
BY PAUL MIRENGOFF
NOT A PARODY
NOT A PARODY
* * *
[From article]
four professors have made themselves available for that purpose. The four are: Katherine Franke, Conrad Johnson, Olati Johnson, and Susan Sturm.Who are these professors and what are they likely to say to support traumatized students? The law school’s website answers the first question.
Katherine Franke’s research centers on U.S. racial history; feminist theory; queer theory; sexual and gender rights in global contexts. Her principal areas of teaching are feminist and critical race theory; law and culture; civil rights law; critical legal thought. She is the director of the Center for Gender and Sexuality Law.
Conrad Johnson directed the law school’s fair housing clinic, which specialized in civil rights litigation. He is co-creator of the law school’s first distance-learning offering, the seminar in race-conscious remedies (such as racial quotas). The law school’s website says that he’s a nationally recognized leader in diversity in legal education.
Olatunde Johnson came to Columbia after serving with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the ACLU National Legal Department, for which she was senior consultant on racial justice. Her areas of expertise include anti-discrimination Law, equal protection law, and “public interest” law practice.
Susan Sturm is a professor of law and “social responsibility.” Her areas of expertise include employment discrimination and race and gender.
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2014/12/how-to-talk-to-a-traumatized-law-student.php
POSTED ON DECEMBER 8, 2014
BY PAUL MIRENGOFF
HOW TO TALK TO A TRAUMATIZED LAW STUDENT
POSTED ON DECEMBER 8, 2014
BY PAUL MIRENGOFF
HOW TO TALK TO A TRAUMATIZED LAW STUDENT
* * *
POSTED ON DECEMBER 8, 2014
BY PAUL MIRENGOFF I
COLUMBIA LAW SCHOOL AND THE APOTHEOSIS OF “NEWSPEAK”
COLUMBIA LAW SCHOOL AND THE APOTHEOSIS OF “NEWSPEAK”
