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Balkinization Symposiums: A Continuing List                                                                E-mail: Jack Balkin: jackbalkin at yahoo.com Bruce Ackerman bruce.ackerman at yale.edu Ian Ayres ian.ayres at yale.edu Corey Brettschneider corey_brettschneider at brown.edu Mary Dudziak mary.l.dudziak at emory.edu Joey Fishkin joey.fishkin at gmail.com Heather Gerken heather.gerken at yale.edu Abbe Gluck abbe.gluck at yale.edu Mark Graber mgraber at law.umaryland.edu Stephen Griffin sgriffin at tulane.edu Jonathan Hafetz jonathan.hafetz at shu.edu Jeremy Kessler jkessler at law.columbia.edu Andrew Koppelman akoppelman at law.northwestern.edu Marty Lederman msl46 at law.georgetown.edu Sanford Levinson slevinson at law.utexas.edu David Luban david.luban at gmail.com Gerard Magliocca gmaglioc at iupui.edu Jason Mazzone mazzonej at illinois.edu Linda McClain lmcclain at bu.edu John Mikhail mikhail at law.georgetown.edu Frank Pasquale pasquale.frank at gmail.com Nate Persily npersily at gmail.com Michael Stokes Paulsen michaelstokespaulsen at gmail.com Deborah Pearlstein dpearlst at yu.edu Rick Pildes rick.pildes at nyu.edu David Pozen dpozen at law.columbia.edu Richard Primus raprimus at umich.edu K. Sabeel Rahmansabeel.rahman at brooklaw.edu Alice Ristroph alice.ristroph at shu.edu Neil Siegel siegel at law.duke.edu David Super david.super at law.georgetown.edu Brian Tamanaha btamanaha at wulaw.wustl.edu Nelson Tebbe nelson.tebbe at brooklaw.edu Mark Tushnet mtushnet at law.harvard.edu Adam Winkler winkler at ucla.edu Compendium of posts on Hobby Lobby and related cases The Anti-Torture Memos: Balkinization Posts on Torture, Interrogation, Detention, War Powers, and OLC The Anti-Torture Memos (arranged by topic) Recent Posts Professor Connell's Accusers
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Thursday, July 21, 2011
Professor Connell's Accusers
Jason Mazzone
According to a press release issued by his attorneys, law professor Larry Connell of Widener University has been cleared of all but one of the allegations of misconduct brought against him in connection with his classroom behavior. The press release reports that following a three-day "trial," the university committee hearing the allegations dismissed all of the charges of racial and sexual harassment against Professor Connell but found that he violated a university anti-retaliation policy by e-mailing his students to contest the charges and by issuing a press release about them. Earlier this year, Professor Connell filed a defamation lawsuit against the dean of Widener University School of Law School for allegedly filing false disciplinary charges against him. Professor Connell later amended his complaint to add as co-defendants two students from his Spring 2010 criminal law class, who, he alleged, made false statements to members of the Widener administration alleging sexist and racist conduct by Connell in the classroom. For more background on the case, see Orin Kerr' discussion here and here.
Comments:
Your post leaves me a little confused. Are you saying that the accusers made false statements of fact (which would certainly be an issue for the bar) or that they were overly sensitive or naive in reacting to the Professor's hypotheticals? I am not sure the latter is serious enough to warrant finding them unfit to practice law, though it may say something about their maturity and judgment (not to mention the society in which they were raised).
What an awful idea. It is not a moral issue to sincerely believe that one has been the victim of racism or sexism, even if people in positions of authority happen to disagree.
Oh, poor law professors! I can't think of a more privileged lot who I am less interested in protecting, especially by the extreme means of destroying the careers of law students who in most cases will have gotten in debt in the range of 6-figures obtaining what is in most cases an overpriced education, that, by the way, will tend not to really teach them much about how to actually practice law. In any case, I sort of suspected that I did not particularly think much of Mr. Mazzone's own character when he came up with a watered-down weak idea masquerading as filibuster reform. The lack of courage was quite evident at that point. The idea that he thinks it is a good idea to stifle student expression to protect law professors who are certainly powerful enough and able enough to protect themselves just fine confirms it for me. Is Mr. Mazzone afraid of students just like he is afraid to propose ideas that are actually bold and take an ounce of courage to advocate for? It appears that he is. Therefore, we must take extreme measures to protect vulnerable people in Mr. Mazzone's position. Talk about someone who is totally out of touch with any sense of reality. If I was on a character and fitness committee, I would deny Mr. Mazzone the ability to practice law. Why? In order to make an example of him and discourage others from writing such poorly reasoned blog posts. No one deserves to have academic freedom who would stifle the expression of others. Yes, I am sure that being accused of racism or sexism is unpleasant; that does not justify destroying careers simply to avoid any inconvenience in your own excessively privileged life. Oh wait! I'm sorry. We wouldn't want to stifle law professors in any way! We reserve that sort of treatment for students. The only thing I know for sure is that Mr. Mazzone does not belong anywhere near a character and fitness committee. Seriously. If you are getting the sense that I am not impressed by proposals to coddle overly privileged law professors, you are getting the right idea.
Not sure I see a connection between your disagreement with Professor Mazzone's views on filibuster reform and the amount of courage he does or does not have. At least he is one of the few bloggers here who open his posts for comments. Ill mannered comments such as yours explain why.
All of you need to take a chill pill.
Doesn't all of this (student's accusations, overzealous administrators, retaliatory action by Connell, blog post suggesting barred bar admission, blog post criticizing character of blogger and law professors in general) just seem a bit surreal. At any point in the process, someone with a cool head could have just said "enough." Perhaps Connell or the school administrators should have invited the students over to the garden for a beer:) To me, the disappointment is the inability of everyone involved to see that they are taking themselves way too seriously.
I'm not a law professor but do teach in a political science department. I followed this chain of events pretty closely on the VC a few months ago. As a professor, I'm horrified at the mere possibility that someone could accuse me of racial or sexual harassment just on the basis of what I said in the classroom or what I said in my hypotheticals. It's a professor's worst nightmare. Connell made some poor choices --I never would have used the Dean in a hypo. if I weren't on good terms w/ her-- as did the Dean. This is an example of how not to handle such a situation.
Now to Jason's point. I'm w/ David Wekler on this one. I, too, don't think that it's a good idea. Students shouldn't have to fear that their future legal careers could be put in jeopardy when they make such a complaint even if it turns out that it lacks merit. Typically, in such cases, I suspect that students are oversensitive.
A year or two ago, there was a bunch of professors here oh so concerned that even investigating Prof. John Yoo would be a threat to his academic freedom. It was left to one academic (who was sneered at by one of the most strident Yoo defenders) and comments to explain how off this all was.
It is this over the top sentiment that is reflected by this post. The students were wrong but the point of school is to be educated about such things. Threatening bar admissions for such learning experiences is misguided in the extreme and very well might lead to those with more serious claims to be wary about submitting them. It also ironically harms one 1A (even for non-public academic institutions, the 1A expresses values that should be honored) type value (right to petition) for another (freedom of speech).
However, I kind of suspect that I do not think very much of the character Mr. Mazzone, when he came up with a watered-down idea of taking a weak back pass for reform. The lack of courage was quite clear at this stage. The idea that he thinks it's a good idea to suppress the expression of the students to protect law professors, who are certainly strong enough and able to protect themselves and confirmation for me. Mr. Mazzone is afraid of the students, just as he has the courage to propose ideas that are really brave and take a bit of courage to plead? It seems that he is. That's why we have to take extreme measures to protect vulnerable people, the position of Mr. Mazzone.
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