The Volokh Conspiracy

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Free Speech

From Akhil Amar, David Lat, and Simon Lazarus on TrapHouseGate and the Broader Climate at Yale Law School

Amar: The Yale Law School administration has been "dilatory, duplicitous, disingenuous, downright deplorable."

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[1.] You can see Amar's comments here, with the relevant portion starting at about 58:30:

[2.] David Lat has a characteristically thoughtful analysis here, with many further details about the state of things at Yale Law School beyond what had been aired publicly. He also adds:

Professor Amar is not the only Democrat and person from the left side of the aisle who believes that the YLS administration should apologize to Colbert for how he was treated. Simon Lazarus—Yale Law class of 1967 and an alum of the Carter Administration, where he served as associate director of the White House Domestic Policy Staff—also wrote an excellent, detailed analysis of Trap House-gate….

Lazarus's piece was emailed around the YLS faculty yesterday by Professor Bruce Ackerman—who is, along with Akhil Amar, one of Yale Law's leading scholars of constitutional law, as well as no one's idea of a conservative. Not many faculty members have spoken publicly about recent events at YLS, but those who have raised concerns about the overall intellectual environment—including Ackerman, Amar, Amy Chua, and Roberta Romano—are some of the school's most well-known and well-respected professors.

[3.] Finally, the final paragraph from Lazarus, a prominent liberal lawyer:

"Inflection point" is an overused cliché, but in my opinion it applies to this situation. If YLS does not disavow the practices revealed by this incident, and either reaffirm or thoughtfully adjust the Vann Woodward Report's robustly free-expression-centered regime, it will become a radically different institution from the one that gave me my finest educational experience, in moral as well as professional terms, and wholly deserved stature among America's, and the world's, law schools.

Inside baseball, I know, but we're baseball insiders at an inside baseball blog.