I enjoyed my speaking engagement at Harvard law school last week, but I was very disappointed to learn from a law professor and from conservative students how grim and suffocating the intellectual atmosphere there now is.

Ten years ago, on my first visit to Harvard law school since my graduation some two decades earlier, I praised then-dean Elena Kagan and her “liberality of spirit” for having “revitalized” the school. I was especially surprised and impressed by how one conservative student after another told me how much they loved the place. It was quite a change from when I was a student, when nearly everyone, I think, across ideological lines found the law school dispiriting.

Alas, it appears that Kagan’s successor as dean, Martha Minow—whom I’ve had occasion to criticize—has managed in a few short years to reverse all the progress that Kagan had made. From what I hear, an oppressive political correctness pervades the school and stifles discussion, both inside and outside the classroom. The conservative students I spoke with saw little or nothing to celebrate.