“Progressives” want to use education at every level to dictate how people will think. Teaching skills and knowledge is a secondary concern. It should surprise no one that law schools are a prime target; leftists want as many lawyers and judges as possible to be steeped in their belief system.
That is my topic in today’s Martin Center article, “Progressivism Surges Through America’s Law Schools.”
One manifestation of this is the clamor for including critical race theory in the law-school curriculum. There’s nothing wrong with discussing and debating whether CRT makes the least bit of sense, but it should not be “taught” anywhere. I think that Rich Vedder and Amy Wax are correct when they write: “The CRT approved story is that white racism is pervasive and accounts for all racial disparities. What is not taught—what students are not even allowed to hear—is the contrary position that persistent racial inequalities are oftentimes rooted in cultural differences and behavioral tendencies that are not traceable to slavery and cannot be solved by purging the vague category of ‘structural racism.’”
Some law schools are already requiring students to take courses with CRT ideology embedded in them, and now the American Bar Association is advancing the idea that vague “diversity” goals should be part of the accreditation standards for law schools.
We are also hearing of law professors who decline to teach certain cases and topics because they might be “hurtful” to some students.
The intolerant mindset of leftism has already soaked into the legal profession. One legal-aid lawyer, a woman of impeccable credentials, has been fired simply because she dared to criticize CRT.
Quite a few years ago, a friend who was a partner in a big law firm told me that he didn’t care to interview applicants from a certain prestige law school because their heads were filled with irrelevant theories but they knew little about the nuts and bolts of our law. Things have gotten worse since then.