Strengthening Constitutional Self-Government

No Left Turns

Diversity in higher ed, yet again

This time, via Power Line, it’s the law schools that turn out to be largely Democratic by at least one measure of political behavior (campaign contributions). All the reasonable caveats apply, as it’s not clear that the professors who write the checks use their classrooms to indoctrinate or that this form of political behavior is necessarily and ineluctably connected with a tilt in one’s scholarship. Nevertheless, it is reasonable to wonder if there might not be something of an echo chamber, especially in elite law schools:

The most serious problem pointed to by the study, Professor [John O.] McGinnis [the author] said, is that the ideas generated by the law schools are both uniform and untested.


"It may be," he added, "that the rise of conservative think tanks counterbalances this effect to a degree. As one who believes in markets, I think that alternative institutions in the long run will arise to supply ideas." Even so, he said, "liberal ideas might well be strengthened and made more effective if liberals had to run a more conservative gantlet among their own colleagues when developing them."

I’m looking forward to the article, which will appear in the
Georgetown Law Journal this fall.

Update: Professor Bainbridge has more, with links.

Discussions - 3 Comments

Can’t say that I’m surprised.

Doesn’t surprise me, either.

Ohio State law school has one libertarian. He teaches business classes (not surprising). We used to have a Republican, but he became the state solicitor. He also taught business classes. Most of the professors I have encountered have been fair, with only one consistently pushing his views on the class. Most lawyers and law professors love arguing so much that they will take both sides of the issue. Like the philosopher in the movie Ridicule. Our pscyhological defects ensure that classes are more fair than one would suppose.

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