Law Schools

An Open Letter To 'Liberal' Law Professors

Are you Liberal? I’m not convinced just because you voted for Biden.

By  
on

Dear “Liberal” Colleagues:

I’m very pleased that you are happy with the election results. It makes me happy that you are happy. Although I’m not a member of any political football team, I do think things have been a bit sticky lately. However, now that President-Elect Joe Biden is on the scene, and your blood pressure is down, I thought I would inform you of a few things that will likely be going through my mind in the next four years.

You see, many outside and inside of legal academia will use your vote in favor of Biden as evidence that you are a “liberal.” Because, as I’m told, Democrats are “liberal” and Republicans are “conservative.” But I don’t buy labels. I look at action. And those actions might suggest something entirely different.

This goes beyond hypocrisy. Hypocrisy might be something like screaming at the TV and page refreshing your browser while you wait for the states to hurry up vote counts. AND then take two months to grade exams while complaining about students emailing you asking when grades will be posted.  That’s not necessarily a liberal thing. Although I’m sure your students will find it funny. Let’s run through some examples.

When you say that President Donald Trump’s supporters are all racist, I look at your faculty profile page. You see, it’s hard not to convince me of systemic racism regardless of party. I look at the numbers of minority professors in legal academia, and I have to say I’m not thrilled by our “diversity.” To me, it seems a bit like many members of the academy was accusing President Trump of doing overtly what the academy does more or less covertly. Or, as I like to call it, projection. I’m not saying you are to blame for your institution’s lack of diversity (unless you are), I’m saying you shouldn’t be selective as to where you see it.

But let’s not stop there. I’ll also see how you treat minority candidates, particularly those who do not hail from Yale, Harvard, or one of the other two schools from which your school hires. I’ll be watching to see how quick you are to attack their scholarship, torpedo their job talks, and then tout the remarkable scholarship of that white guy from Yale. Do you do this as someone who claims to be a big advocate of diversity, much like Trump claimed in terms of how “MAGA loves the Black people?” Did questions about VP-Elect Harris’ qualifications to be president outrage you all the while you were questioning whether a minority candidate would be a “good fit?”

I will look at your conduct on committees. Will you try to kill a minority faculty candidacy at the committee level like you’re Mitch McConnell and the candidate’s name is Garland?

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When you berate Trump’s attack on Critical Race Theory, do you do it while saying excrement like “we can’t sacrifice quality for diversity”? Because that red herring has been in play in academia for a long time (it’s now a staple in diversity trainings) and it isn’t a Trumpian concept. Did you blow off diversity trainings or try to be clever with the trainers so you could dismiss what they were trying to teach you?

When you speak of how Harris has broken a glass ceiling, do you do so while reinforcing those within academia? The ones that relate to citation counts and scholarly impact? The ones that relate to disproportionate committee loads? The ones that make it more difficult for minority women to get tenure than anyone else? Is this a bad time for me to highlight Meera Deo’s book Unequal Profession in which you can read all about those barriers?

When you tell me that Trump treated citizens of blue states as second-class citizens, I look at how you treat nontenure-track faculty and staff. Are legal writing professors and clinical professors your “blue states?” How strongly have you advocated on their behalf? How often do you listen to them? Do you view their scholarship differently than your own?

When you complain that Trump has unfairly claimed minorities are cheats and liars, I ask whether you have disproportionately accused certain law students of violations of your school’s Honor Code? Do you even know your school’s stats? Your own? While we’re at it, did you bravely attack the bar examiners for their draconian measures without a moment of self-reflection about your own?

When you accuse Trump supporters of being a cult of personality, I’ll be watching whether you say things like, “SQUEE! I got cited by Cass!” Do you deify particular political players in the any branch of government, while ignoring all of their shortcomings? None? Not even Supreme Court justices?  Not a single one?

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When you attacked Trump about cronyism, did you do so all the while trying to get your bestie a job at your law school? Perhaps you didn’t disclose that and savagely attacked a competing candidate during the hiring meeting? Or maybe had others do it for you?

Did you balk at the lack of diversity in Trump’s cabinet? If so, did you diversify your white manel by having a single white woman? Did you consider your efforts successful when it was a balance of white men and white women?

Sure, we could dismiss these all as just professors eagerly checking the privilege of others while ignoring their own, but I hear that voting Democrat makes you a “liberal.”  Liberals don’t just dismiss these concerns, right?

Just wondering.

LawProfBlawg is an anonymous professor at a top 100 law school. You can see more of his musings here. He is way funnier on social media, he claims. Please follow him on Twitter (@lawprofblawg) or Facebook. Email him at lawprofblawg@gmail.com.

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