Law Professors, Law School Deans, Law Schools

'Scaliagate' Continues: A Professor Brings A Defamation Action Against His Dean

Instead of going away, the infighting at Georgetown Law is only escalating.

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GULC_south_quad_Georgetown_LawMany people, including many people at Georgetown University Law Center, are tired of the controversy over GULC professors’ responses to the passing of Justice Scalia (a kerfuffle we dubbed “Scaliagate” — an informal and tongue-in-cheek moniker, so no need to tell us, as some already have, that it doesn’t really deserve the “gate” suffix).

But law school scandals, much like law school loans, don’t go away so quickly or easily. In fact, the controversy has escalated, as reported by Georgetown Law Weekly:

On Monday, March 21st, the Law Weekly obtained a Notice of Grievance filed by Law Center Professor Gary Peller against Dean William Treanor with the Georgetown University Grievance Committee. The Notice of Grievance alleges that Dean Treanor defamed Peller in retaliation for his criticism of Treanor’s public statement issued in the wake of the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia last month, and demands a public apology and retraction.

The Law Weekly piece then recounts the email back-and-forth pitting Professor Peller and his fellow liberal, Professor Michael Seidman, against three more pro-Scalia faculty members: Dean Treanor, whose initial email kicked off the controversy, and Georgetown’s resident conservatives, Professors Randy Barnett and Nick Rosenkranz. If you’re not familiar with that background, we refer you here and here.

Here’s the gravamen of the grievance by Professor Peller:

Peller alleges that Dean Treanor defamed him by stating to Professors Barnett and Rosenkranz that Peller’s initial email was in violation of campus e-mail policy. Peller contends that the statements are false because “[he] followed Law Center procedures and complied with Law Center and University policies in requesting and receiving authorization to disseminate a communication to all students and staff.”

Peller alleges harm to his reputation for “honesty, integrity and fair dealing” because “the defamatory statements have been widely disseminated….via newspaper accounts, online news reports, and other media…”

For his requested relief, Peller seeks “a clear and unequivocal public retraction [by Dean Treanor] of his defamatory statements,” to be disseminated “without delay to all faculty, staff and students of the Law Center.”

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We reached out for possible comment to GULC, which issued this statement:

As an institution of higher learning, Georgetown Law is a place of immense intellectual vitality. While we cannot comment on any matters pending before the Georgetown University Grievance Committee, we have the highest regard for the faculty and the diverse points of view they represent.

Looking more closely at the grievance itself, there’s ample opportunity for issue-spotting, as you’d expect of a dispute between a law professor and a law dean. There’s a “unitary executive” issue: can George Petasis, GULC’s chief information officer, authorize dissemination of a school-wide email, as Peller maintains? Or does such authority rest solely in the hands of Treanor as dean, the position that the grievance (paragraphs 10-13) attributes to Treanor?

And there’s an issue of written versus unwritten authority. According to paragraphs 13 and 15 of the grievance (whoops, paragraph 14 is missing), Dean Treanor claims that his exclusive authority over school-wide email is an unwritten policy. This doesn’t sit well with Professor Peller, who claims that he followed the law school’s written policy for email distribution, which should be controlling:

The question of “authorization” under law is determined by objective manifestations rather than the secret or subjective intentions of actors.

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Wherever he is right now — and Professor Peller and Dean Treanor might disagree on that — Justice Scalia is smiling.[1]

[1] Contrary to a popular misconception, Justice Scalia’s version of originalism is based not on “original intent,” but on “original public meaning.”

Professor files defamation grievance against Dean in wake of Scalia e-mails [Georgetown Law Weekly]
Peller v. Treanor: Notice of Grievance [Georgetown University Grievance Committee]

Earlier: Rest Of Georgetown Law Faculty To Quarreling Colleagues: OMG Stop
‘Scaliagate’ At Georgetown Law: The Conservatives Strike Back
Controversy Erupts At A T14 Law School Over How (Or Even Whether) To Mourn Justice Scalia

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