March 13, 2006

Howard Bashman finds it "a bit unfair" to chide liberal law professors (see Mar. 8) for advancing arguments "of questionable validity" which the Supreme Court rejected by an 8-0 margin. After all, the arguments had convinced some judges in lower courts, and the professors did gain considerable attention in public discussion for the points they wished to make. Meanwhile, the Times's Adam Liptak in his Sunday retrospective quotes Yale lawprof Peter Schuck:

"There is often a feeling that if something is morally wrong it must be legally wrong and that clever arguments can bring those two things into alignment," Professor Schuck said.

The elite law schools have for decades been overwhelmingly liberal, Professor Schuck said, and that may have blinded professors to problems with their arguments.