Columbia Smuggles Activism Into The Law

City Journal:  Columbia Smuggles Activism Into the Law, by Tal Fortgang (Manhattan Institute):

Hardly anyone reads law review articles, but those who do are among the most influential readers in the country. Supreme Court justices and federal and state judges rely on academic theories to decide important cases and to set the legal doctrines that shape American life. Professors shape their students’ worldviews by assigning articles appearing in prestigious journals to show that they are authoritative—the law equivalent of peer-reviewed. Though these journals are student-run and -edited, they often legitimize the ideas that become law and common knowledge.

It’s no small deal, then, when a distinguished law review compromises the procedures that help keep it trustworthy.

And it is a huge problem if that law review circumvents its usual procedures and drops its editorial standards to push shoddy legal scholarship with a clear—and bigoted—agenda. But if any institution knows how to set its own credibility ablaze, it’s Columbia University, the school that let itself be overrun with rule-flouting student radicals this spring, and whose flagship law review has followed suit. ...

The Columbia officials who ushered in this era of academically bankrupt and activist pseudo-scholarship are unlikely to do any soul-searching about their role in spreading falsehoods and shredding their institution’s credibility. But Americans, including judges and academics, should remain vigilant in insisting that not everything written under a prestigious name is worth the paper it’s printed on.

Paul Horwitz (Alabama), Hmmm….

Any present or former journalist, or anyone who has written an op-ed or essay for a general interest publication, knows that editors are keen on compelling openings that suggest to the reader the immense importance of the topic. ... It’s an understandable practice. But it carries with it tremendous temptations to exaggerate, mythologize, or pay implicit tribute to Harry Frankfurt. So we come to the first paragraph of this essay in the online spaces of the midbrow conservative “public intellectual” publication City Journal. I have to wonder: Does anyone really think that anything in this paragraph after the first six words is true? Does the author, a law school graduate, really think so? I just can't see how.

Prior TaxProf Blog coverage:

• New York Times, 54 Columbia Law Faculty Condemn Administration For Disciplinary Action Against Anti-Israel Student Protesters (Apr. 23, 2024)
• Washington Post, Punish Columbia Professors, Not Students Protesters, For The Intellectual Degeneration On Campus (Apr. 28, 2024)
• Law.com, Columbia Law School Delays Exams Amid Protests and Police Activity (May 1, 2024)
• Bloomberg Law, Columbia Law School Offers Optional Pass/Fail Grading Amid Campus Protests (May 2, 2024)
• Washington Free Beacon, “Irrevocably Shaken”: Columbia Law Review Editors Demand Cancellation Of Exams Due To Campus Protests (May 4, 2024)
• Washington Free Beacon, 13 Federal Judges Will Not Hire Law Clerks From Columbia: An ‘Incubator Of Bigotry’ (May 7, 2024)
• Reuters, Columbia Law Dean Voices Confidence In Graduates In Face Of Conservative Judges' Boycott (May 8, 2024)
• Michael Simkovic (USC), Columbia Law Professor Says Columbia University Violated Federal Laws, Fostered A ‘Hostile Environment’ On Campus (May 11, 2024)
• Wall Street Journal, Civil Rights And Antisemitism At Columbia (May 28, 2024)
• The Intercept, Columbia Law Review Refused To Take Down Article On Palestine, So Board Of Directors Took Down Its Website (June 4, 2024)
• New York Times, More On The Columbia Law Review Controversy (June 6, 2024)
• The Intercept, Student Editors Vote 20-5 To Reject Board's Offer To Bring Columbia Law Review Back Online (June 7, 2024)
• David Bernstein (George Mason), Paul Horwitz (Alabama) & Steve Lubet (Northwestern), Reflections On The Columbia Law Review Imbroglio (June 10, 2024)
• National Law Journal, NYC Bar Association Blasts Federal Judges' Columbia Boycott Letter (June 18, 2024)