This is good to see

"Two snaps in a circle."

Is it 1995 in the government? I know it sucks to be poor and dress like a Republican every day, but can't he freshen up his lingo?

jd is a repressive secretive organization...just like the usg.

keep the jones day thread alive. we need more perspective.

Is he wearing a toupee already?

i would never have expected Lat to confuse gays and liberals.

Lat.

I love liberals that are so open they like exclude people they disagree with. Way to be progressive guys!

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Uhh . . . did you even read the post, or are you just talking to yourself as usual.

That joke about burquas is incredibly insensitive and MUST BE REMOVED!!!

i go to bc law. i am excited. that is all.

I am a personal friend of Chris Hook's and he is a GREAT GUY. And, no, he does NOT wear a toupee but he is an amazing rower.

Uh yeah, not exciting. Closer to mildly disgracing, maybe.

I knew Chris when he was an undergraduate. Good guy. But I wish he had the guts to have told me that ......he wanted to be a lawyer. It must have been painful keeping that in for so many years. Don't worry Chris, there are lots of us (lawyers) out there. I'm sorry you felt you had to hide it.

I go to BC Law. The student body is so progressive, they refuse to allow any viewpoint but their super liberal ones to be supported.

These are the same people who went ape shit about Condoleeze Rice being on main campus last year. They were upset about a black, female politicaion. I think the progressive democratic student group had a joint picket with the KKK.

Now if only they could do something about that simulated drowning thing.

The issue with Mukasey (and Rice also for that matter) has much more to do with school policy than is currently being portrayed. BC has a speaker policy in place which effectively limits free speech that doesn't fall into line with Catholic doctrine. First, any student groups which choose a particular speaker can have their wishes overruled by the University administration. Secondly, if any speaker comes to campus and asserts a non pro-Catholic agenda, the University's rules state that the event must provide a counter balancing speaker. Thus, a pro-Catholic speaker must be added to the event. This is not true however if the the event already advances a pro-Catholic doctrine.

Given the speech policy, it is quite surprising that both the undergraduate and law school administration have chosen commencement speakers which are part of an administration that has engaged in acts which the Catholic church has condemned, i.e. the Iraq war with Rice and torture with Mukasey. Admittedly, neither of the speakers will be speaking on those policies. However, such prominent individuals embody the decisions that have been made by the Bush administration.

Furthermore, Dean Garvey made a wholly unilateral decision without consulting the faculty or the students. The Commencement is not for Dean Garvey, but the graduating 3Ls. Given the liberal/progressive majority, I would be very surprised if the student body would have chosen Mukasy in the first place. Of course the complete aloofness that Garvey has shown regarding how out of step he is with his constituents is one of the hallmarks of his deanship.

End of story is that there is a great deal of tension at BC law school about the movement to a more Catholic/religious environment. I would indeed suggest that the tension is starting to boil. This school has a lot of strengths, but the differences between the faculty/students and the administration is becoming unmanageable. Speaking from a personal perspective, it is very concerning to me as a student. If I had to choose it all over again, I may just be at that supposedly "second rate" school just down Comm. Ave.

7:28 is full of crap. The law school does not have a policy of requiring "Catholic doctrine" speakers. Otherwise, the school would pretty much require a second professor in each class.

BC law has a tradition of these silly protests. It led the law school charge against the Soloman Amendment back in the late-90s. And the liberal student body was amazed and shocked by opposing viewpoints. Students went ballistic to attempt to prevent the US Military from recruiting on campus. The "if you don't agree with me, you can't be here" attitude was amusing. Fortunately for those students, the administration didn't share their closed-minded views -- or the Catholic school wouldn't have allowed the ACLU, for example, to interview on campus.

7:28 -- To further my point, see below. The internet is amazing, eh? One search, and I found this. From 2007.

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Another Catholic College--Boston Law School--to Showcase Pro-Abortion Speaker
Planned Parenthood identified speaker as having been "100 percent" supportive

By Gudrun Schultz

BOSTON, Massachusetts, May 9, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Boston College Law School invited Congressman Edward J. Markey, who openly supports abortion “rights”, to speak at its 2007 Law School commencement.

Stating his pleasure at announcing Markey’s acceptance of the engagement, the College Law Dean, John H. Garvey, lauded Markey as “one of the most distinguished graduates of Boston College Law School, whose career of public service reflects the very best values and traditions of the School.”

Last one. But, I could go on and on. The 2003 Graduation Speaker? Probably not The Vatican's favorite Supreme Court Justice -- Justice Breyer . . . . .

BC Law Dean John H. Garvey praised Justice Breyer’s commitment to the law and to the nation, calling him one of the most important figures in contemporary American law. "Justice Breyer writes his opinions in a way that permits all of us, especially nonlawyers, to understand the law," Garvey said. "He does not confine his teaching to pronouncements from the bench. We honor and are honored by Justice Stephen Breyer, who by choice and conviction is a teacher to our nation."

Well...when you enroll in one of the oldest Jesuit affiliated universities in the country, what do you expect? It's not like BC hides its affiliation until you've paid your tuition bill and shown up for the first day.

If you voluntarily sit down at a vegetarian restaurant, don't complain about not having a meat option.

nice work, old guy.

8:45 -- The ridiculous speech policy that 7:28 described does in fact exist, but the law school and most of the grad schools were quickly exempted because of the (quite appropriate!) expressions of indignation from the law faculty.

9:27 -- Yes, everyone knows BC is a Jesuit school. But this isn't about Catholicism vs. Secularism. Really, the tension is between those who identify with the social justice traditions of small-c catholicism and those who want the school to be more _doctrinally_ big-C Catholic. Historically, the law school was much more small-c catholic, because Father Drinan (the anti-war, pro-civil rights priest and congressperson who died last year) was the Dean for so long and had such an influence on the school. But Dean Garvey (who was appointed by the hardline rightwingers on the BC main campus) is trying to eliminate a lot of that legacy, which is causing a lot of pushback.

6:32: Because she's black and female liberals aren't allowed to disagree with her views without being hypocritical? How do you figure that?

Lat is a repressed homosexual. He is obviously gay, but hates being gay and filipino.

Lat, come out, and love yourself!

1:09: Very interesting about big "C" and small "c". A small distinction most people don't understand when I tell them that I'm a Catholic and a liberal.

Mukasey is a liberal, but he just isn't left enough for the extreme secular left at BC, which are the ones complaining loudly as usual. I can only assume that even though the average BC student is very liberal, the average BC student doesn't have a problem with Mukasey.

The comment about BC's policy of bringing in pro-Catholic speakers is ridiculous. Is that supposed to mean that Sean Hannity and Antonin Scalia are not "good Catholics", but pro-homosexuality, pro-abortion speakers are (or else they could never invite a Democrat as speaker)? Anyone who believes this should get acquainted with the Catholic of doctrine of dogma (hint: Catholics may have differing views on waterboarding or the Iraq War, but Catholics *cannot* have differing views on abortion).

10:19: No one is saying that we cannot disagree with Rics's views because of her race or gender. The point is that Rice's views are very close to the mainstream (and decidedly to the left on social issues), and that liberals who protest Rice do so precisely because of her race/gender, on the theory that someone with her race/gender must necessarily embrace the views of the very far left.

8:47/Fed Soc - please demonstrate for me where Rice is "mainstream" and where her social views are "decidedly to the left."

Please post examples and remember that "decidedly to the left" means left of center, not left of your far right-hand outpost.

Interesting tidbit, and good for Mukasey. However, are we going to see a post about the Administration declaring waterboarding legal and announcing their intention to do it in the future?

"Rice's views are very close to the mainstream (and decidedly to the left on social issues)"

It must be sad to be this out of touch with reality.

As a liberal who will graduate from BC Law this year, I am nothing but excited about Mukasey speaking at my commencement.

Is the man's lifetime commitment to excellence and service really outweighed by what is probably a temporary refusal to recognize waterboarding as torture?

To BC '08: First, yes, AG Mukasey's refusal to recognize that waterboarding is torture outweighs his past service, in much the same way that Colin Powell's speech at the UN on WMD will forever be a stain on his credibility and reputation - and that of the United States - at home and worldwide. This is no time for equivocations on such matters. And this is not about a liberal/conservative dispute. This is realpolitik. If we don't repair the wounds of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, you can forget about the US ever being secure again. BCLS giving Mukasey this platform and honor is much bigger than you and your commencement speaker.

Second, I (and many others) spent 3 years of my life, gave hundreds of extra-curricular hours, and went over $100k into debt for my BC Law degree. Alumni are just as invested in Mukasey receiving the Founders' Medal as are you in having him speak at your commencement.

Fed Soc,

Your line about abortion being the one non-negotiable issue is a sad refrain that far-right Catholic groups proposed in the 2004 elections. In fact, though personal support for abortion is not negotiable, Catholic theology and doctrine allows for a diversity of public approaches to the abortion issue. One may rightly feel that criminalizing abortion would lead to more harm than good (in terms of public health issues from 'back alley' abortions, for example), and therefore oppose it, or believe that the pluralism of America justifies a more accepting public stance as to abortion.

Does BC allow any pro-choice speakers, or pro-gay rights? Some think Ex Corde Ecclesia prohibited anyone who does not agree with the vatican on every issue from speakign on a catholic campus.