George Mason Law Changing Name To Antonin Scalia School Of Law

If George Mason just wanted to appeal to conservative students, they could have called themselves the Chick-Fil-A School of Lawsauce.

Justice Scalia

Justice Scalia

George Mason was a founding father. He was one of the men who was responsible for the Bill of Rights — he wouldn’t sign the constitution without it (or at all, ultimately). Now, the law school at the university that bears his name is changing its name to the Antonin Scalia School of Law at George Mason University.

Amazingly, this is not an April Fool’s joke. Richard Kelsey, Director of the Mason Law Community, tweeted out the news:

This was after Nina Totenberg first reported the news on Twitter. I said out loud that Totenberg “got GOT, fools,” and… well, now the WSJ Law Blog has confirmed this news.

Good lord. You are deemphasizing the name of a founding father to honor a man who fetishisized the beliefs held at the founding? A guy who didn’t go there, or have any connection to the school, who wouldn’t have hired a George Mason law student as a bathroom attendant, much less a Supreme Court clerk? That’s the guy you are renaming your law school after? Your Twitter hashtag is now #ASSLaw (Antonin Scalia School of Law). Who was in second place, Donald Trump?

Is there any reason for this?

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We talk a lot about the law school application crunch, and how that crunch disproportionately dings middling law schools like George Mason. There is a flight to quality, there is a flight to “free,” and schools that are neither are having a heck of a time filling their seats.

But branding themselves as “Antonin Scalia,” who most people even lightly interested in law have heard of before, versus “George Mason,” who you should have learned about in AP History but probably didn’t because he’s not a Kardashian, might help them.

Even if Scalia Law generates some push in application and matriculation revenue, especially from right-of-center students, would it be enough to offset the negatives? Changing the school’s name in this way is sure to piss off some alumni.

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If George Mason just wanted to appeal to conservative students, they could have called themselves the Chick-Fil-A School Of Lawsauce, and still pocketed the money.

Money, of course, is the other factor in this change. From the WSJ:

The school expected to unveil the name change Thursday afternoon, along with an announcement that it has received two donations totaling $30 million, including a $10 million grant from the Charles Koch Foundation.

LOL… the Koch brothers, man. They want so desperately to spread the gospel of conservative values that they’re willing to shove aside a founding father to make their point. I hope all of you soon-to-be “Scalia Alums” enjoy having that follow you around for the rest of your life.

If you are a conservative-leaning person, your parents will be proud that you went to “Antonin Scalia.” Your friends will just think you are an ASS.

UPDATE (5:29 p.m.): We’ve posted the George Mason Law press release on the next page.

UPDATE (6:01 p.m.): Lat here. We just heard back from Dean Henry Butler, whom we called a little before 2 p.m. when trying to nail down this story. He apologized for the delay in getting back to us, noting that the news was embargoed and changes were still being made to the press release, and expressed thanks for our recent story about Mason Law’s SCOTUS bobblehead collection.

I asked Dean Butler about the required approval for the name change from the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (mentioned in the press release on the next page); he described that vote as a “formality,” and noted that Governor Terry McAuliffe supports the name change. Finally, he touted the considerable financial benefits associated with the renaming: “Thirty million dollars in scholarships is nothing to laugh at.”

(Flip to the next page for the full press release.)