Where Our Internal Dissenters Make Themselves Known

In most revolutions, the people who want to overthrow the powerful reigning state would NOT normally post a list of all the traitors for the entire public to see in one convenient place. But no one ever said law professors know a damn thing about conducting a true revolution.

With a tip of the do-rag to the WSJ (law professors as "academic heavyweights" - lol!), the slimeball iconoclast turncoats who have more conscience than greed (the nerve!) have written a public comment to that ABA Task Force that was presumably supposed to be yet another straw man that didn't actually accomplish anything.

The familiar names are there: Campos, Merritt, Rhode, Tamanaha, Caron, Henderson, Kerr, etc., along with Dick Posner (life as a judge means you don't care as much about the poor saps running the schools) and a few mild surprises like Kent Syverud and Philip Closius and the heart-attack-inducing presence of DICK MATASAR! What the hell? I have a poster of this guy on my wall, and was going to put him on the Mount Rushmore with the VD, Leduc, and Larry Mitchell. Matasar? Please tell me that's a joke, good sir! Please tell me you have taken up refuge with the opposition to foil their plans!

But alas, I then realized my error. Dick Matasar is no longer with the Super-Scam New York Law School. He's now affiliated with the Scam-Prestigious New York University. Being a genius, he knows he has to adapt to the climate change across town, and that it would expected of him if he were at an institution that had little prayer of serious scrutiny. The appearance of doing the right thing is so much more important than helping those on the fourth deck stay above the water line on a sinking ship.

And therein lies the rub. Here be a quick, mostly accurate breakdown of that there traitor list:

T13 Schools: 32
Other Flagship Publics: 13
Other T50 Schools: 15
All other schools: 5

The final group represents around 170 law schools. They found five people on all those faculties. TOILET SOLIDARITY! SCAM FOREVER!

It also means that we need to give special scorn to those who went directly against their class interests and should be martyred to Siberia:

Jim Chen - Michigan State (recently moved from Louisville)
Philip Closius - U. of Baltimore (former dean)
Richard Delgado - U. of Seattle ("One of the leading commentators on race in the United States" - apparently he dislikes the access provided to minorities!)
Frank Elliott - Texas Wesleyan (former dean)
Monroe Freedman - Hofstra (former dean)

At least 3 of these people know better. Thank goodness no current deans signed the list! It'd be a personal and institutional embarrassment, admitting that you or your school is interested in changing for the good of the public and/or the students.

But seriously, if these loud yahoos manage to have any effect on legal education (translation: any effect on profits and margins and the dean's ability to buy luxury imports [cars and 2nd wives]), it's obviously going to be lead by the most prestigious of the gilded lawprofs. The TJLS professor who opens his mouth has no better place than the TJLS student would if they found themselves at a BigLaw convention, which they only would if they sold hot dogs at the booth in the corner that hasn't bought new relish in two years.