The Volokh Conspiracy
Mostly law professors | Sometimes contrarian | Often libertarian | Always independent
Letter to the Editor
Last week, I submitted this letter to the Editor of the New York Times. It was not selected, so I will publish it here:
Re: Why The Times Is Expanding Its Supreme Court Coverage (Feb. 2) and Federal Courts Undercut Trump's Mass Deportation Campaign (Feb. 1):
Twice in the span of twenty-four hours, the Times felt compelled to refer to me as a "conservative" law professor. And this routinely happens in other media outlets. I would admit the label is accurate, but why is it necessary? To be sure, describing a professor's politics puts the reader on notice about potential biases, but this rule does not seem to be applied uniformly. Based on my searches of the Times's archives, law professors on the political left are routinely introduced without any label, while conservative law professors--in the rare instances when they are quoted--are more likely to be introduced as conservatives. I found one article that introduces a conservative law professor and a liberal law professor in the same sentence, but only the former is so described. I am grateful that the Times looks to balance out its journalism, but reporters should let a scholar's view speak for itself, without red or blue flags.
Josh Blackman
Houston, Texas
I have a detailed list of these articles, which I may publish another time.
In related news, the Washington Post published several letters to the editor in response to the op-ed I wrote with Ilya Shapiro on the Dean situation in Arkansas. I think our piece made a bigger splash in higher education circles than in legal circles.
