A female law student at American University - Washington College of Law had an unpleasant Yom Kippur. First, she was at the library at 11 p.m. on a Monday night. Second, she had some unexpected company.

From an e-mail that went out to WCL students earlier this week:

TO ALL STUDENTS, FACULTY & STAFF
INCIDENT REPORT

Incident:

On Monday, September 28, at approximately 11:00 pm, a male visitor to the Pence Library exposed himself to a WCL female student while in the quiet reading room of the library. The male then ran out of the library and although chased by WCL students across Mass Ave was able to avoid getting caught. During the chase he dropped a bag containing personal papers possible indicating his name but no address.

They say hell has no fury like a women scorned. But the fury of Jezebel over bloggerly treatment of female harassment might be worse. So when one of my male co-editors responded to this tip with, “This is AWESOME. Who wants to do the honors?”, I realized I better handle this one.

At Duke, masturbatory attacks on unsuspecting female students in the Perkins Library stacks happened with some regularity. I thought this was the case at university libraries across the land, but my co-editors tell me such incidents did not occur at their alma maters. Apparently Duke has more in common with AU than with Harvard and Yale.

More on the Attack of the Stack Whacker, after the jump.

Transferring from the American University Washington College of Law to Harvard Law School is a neat trick — at least in terms of upping your prestige-whore credentials.

An American University WCL student recently pulled off this prestige jumping, and has since responded the way Jin does whenever somebody on the island asks about Jin’s father. The new Harvard student posted this message on the WCL listserve:

How do I get off this listserv? I transferred to Harvard, and have no need to continue receiving emails from WCL.

And you guys think my typos give Harvard a bad name?

Evidently, the WCL students are not sad to see this kid go. Several different tipsters independently furnished some “context” about their former classmate:

* Before answering any question in class, he would preface it with his life history.

* Before making any comment (which was frequently), he would put his feet up on the table and his hands behind his head.

* He raises his hand backwards.

Yeah, this guy is going to fit right in, up in Cambridge.

Curvaceous beauty Monica Lewinsky, who will go down in history as the world’s most famous intern, once joked about going to law school. Instead she went to the prestigious London School of Economics, from which she graduated with a master’s degree in social psychology.

Interestingly enough, Lewinsky wrote a law-related thesis: “In Search of the Impartial Juror: An Exploration of the Third Person Effect and Pre-Trial Publicity.” So maybe she’s leaving the door open to law school at a later point in time.

If Lewinsky decides in favor of a legal education, she might want to consider Washington College of Law (WCL), at American University. Based on an amusing instant-messenger chat that has been making the rounds recently — we received it from half a dozen different sources, so it’s in wide circulation — it seems she’d fit right in.

If you have delicate sensibilities, stop reading now. But if not, check out the quasi-racy IM conversation, after the jump.

We’ve been covering the University of Chicago Law School’s decision to ban internet in the classroom. Courtesy of another law school, here’s some evidence to support denying internet access to law students while in class.

Over at American University Washington College of Law, some students are apparently taking full -frontal advantage of their internet privileges:

From: David Jaffe
Date: Tue, Apr 22, 2008 at 5:11 PM
Subject: Classroom Incident
To: undisclosed-recipients

It has been brought to my attention that several students in the second-year part-time division were viewing pornography online during a recent class, in plain view of a portion of the class and with no attempt to disguise their behavior. This conduct not only reflects poorly on the students involved but also may serve to create a sexually hostile environment. Such conduct violates federal law, the rules of professional conduct, and the American University Code of Student Conduct.

WCL expects students to act with integrity and to maintain high personal and professional standards. This expectation is called into question by the inappropriate behavior that I have described. I call on those students who were involved in this incident to present themselves to me with an explanation for their actions, suggesting in the strongest terms that they do so before I am forced to follow a specific course of action through the WCL Honor Code and the American University Code of Student Conduct.

David Jaffe
Associate Dean for Student Affairs
American University Washington College of Law

Solitaire wasn’t doing it for them, apparently.

We contacted Dean Jaffe for comment (and to learn the fate of the purported pornaholics). He issued the following comment:

I received in response to the foregoing email a communication from a student who acknowledged opening in class an email forwarded to his non-law school account containing what was meant to be humorous pictures, which he described as having the potential to be taken inappropriately. The student indicated that while someone could have thought the email was in bad taste that it was not pornographic. The student expressed that he did not intend for anyone to read his screen, and asked for the chance to personally apologize to anyone who may have been offended. The student added that he holds himself to a higher moral standard than the email portrayed, but accepted full responsibility for opening the email while at school.

We intend to take the necessary and appropriate steps to resolve this matter and to ensure that other students are not affected in the future.

Was the email in question pornographic? We don’t know, since we never saw it. As Justice Potter Stewart famously observed, when it comes to porn, you know it when you see it.

Remember MacGate, at American University’s Washington College of Law? It was resolved. But technology problems persist at WCL:

Date: January 28, 2008 2:34:20 PM EST
Subject: Wireless at WCL

Dear Student Body:

The following problems have been discovered with the WCL network:

1. All access points in room 101 were either turned off, or nonfunctional for the past two years.

2. All access points on the 5th floor were located in elevator shafts, or other places where they did not provide coverage.

3. Certain points on the 6th floor were assigned the wrong IP address,and so did not provide access.

The Technology department is working to address these problems. If you continue to experience problems with the internet, please inform the Student Services Committee at [xxxx]. You can also file an online trouble ticket, when you find yourself in an area with internet access, at [xxxx].

Regards,
Student Services Committee

At first we thought this was satirical, but we were assured that it’s not: “This is for real — we got it from the SBA today. Our wireless has been terrible recently.”

Your friends at ATL obviously want you to have wireless access in class. But we realize that some professors contend that internet access in classrooms is an impediment to instruction.

It appears that the situation we reported on earlier, concerning the plight of Mac users at American University’s Washington College of Law, has been resolved. Several of you forwarded us an email from the WCL administration outlining the steps they’re taking to address the situation, including “providing $12,000 towards the cost of laptop rental for all upper-level users of MACs that are incompatible with the exam software.”

Some reactions from students:

“At times it has felt like a modern PCU, sans George Clinton of course: ‘These, Tom, are the Causeheads. They find a world-threatening issue and stick with it for about a week.’”

“Although I am not a Mac user, and am fairly tired of hearing Mac users whining at school, it’s good to see my school do the right thing.”

“We just received this email from the Dean. Looks like your post helped us out. Thanks!”

You’re welcome. We aim to please here at ATL.

Read the full email, after the jump.

Earlier: American University MacGate
MacGate Update: An Explanation from the University of Kentucky

Would you trust this man to write your biography?

If so, you might be waiting a long time. In fact, you might be DEAD before it’s finished (or even started).

Professor Stephen Wermiel, of American University’s Washington College of Law, has been working on a biography of the late Justice William J.Brennan Jr. for some TWENTY YEARS. Professor Wermiel “began” the project back in 1987, when he covered the Supreme Court for the Wall Street Journal, and Justice Brennan was still on the SCOTUS.

More background, from the Legal Times:

Brennan, who retired from the Court in 1990 and died in 1997, picked Wermiel as his biographer and had hopes of reading the book in his lifetime.

Brennan’s son William Brennan III, who died in 2004, was openly critical of Wermiel’s delay. In a stinging New Yorker essay that quoted Brennan III before he died, legal writer Jeffrey Toobin said Wermiel was guilty of “dawdling” and lumped Wermiel together with Gerald Gunther and Andrew Kaufman, whose biographies of Learned Hand and Benjamin Cardozo, respectively, took more than 20 years to complete.

So is this delay a problem? Find out after the jump.