They say that silence is golden and, apparently, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas agrees. Everyone get out your party hats and balloons, because yesterday marked a ten year anniversary worth celebrating: Justice Thomas has officially gone an entire decade without asking a single question from the bench of the Supreme Court.

The last time Thomas uttered anything at all from the bench? A little over three years ago on January 14, 2013. The country erupted in cheers and excitement as Thomas spoke his first words in almost seven years of silence from the bench: “well–he did not–.” While these were the only words captured by the court transcript on that monumental day, spectators in the court claim that Thomas was making a tasteful joke about the uselessness of a law degree from his alma mater, Yale. The subsequent laughter recorded in the courtroom seems to support those claims.

The last time Thomas asked a question? Well, since yesterday marked the ten year anniversary of his inquisitive silence, that puts his last question on February 22, 2006. To put that into perspective, try to remember what you were doing on this day in 2006. Perhaps, re-watching the first “High School Musical” for the fiftieth time? Singing along to Kelly Clarkson’s “Breakaway?” Maybe even getting excited about the release of the Nintendo DS Lite! 2006 was a long time ago. He asked the question in the middle of Holmes v. South Carolina, a contentious case about the death penalty. Ironically enough, the question almost seems like it was a statement in the form of a question:

Counsel, before you change subjects, isn’t it more accurate that the trial court actually found that the evidence met the Gregory standard?

After approximately eighteen lines of text in the court transcript (which has particularly large margins and is in a font much bigger than Times New Roman), the attorney Thomas had spoken up to correct was shut down, and Thomas returned to his state of hibernation for another few years. Who knows if he will ever speak again!

Thomas is supposedly a proponent of more listening on the Supreme Court and thinks that it is more in his nature to listen than to ask a bunch of questions. Well, hey, to each their own. If he thinks he can do his job best by just sitting back and taking it all in, he can go for it. You keep doing you, Justice Thomas!

Alexandra Simone

Alex Simone is an Editorial Senior Fellow at Law Street and a student at The George Washington University, studying Political Science. She is passionate about law and government, but also enjoys the finer things in life like watching crime dramas and enjoying a nice DC brunch. Contact Alex at ASimone@LawStreetmedia.com

The post Ten Years of Silence: Will Justice Clarence Thomas Ever Speak Up Again? appeared first on Law Street.

College students around the U.S. and Canada have been seeing “White Student Union” pages pop up for their respective schools–as of this morning there were more than 30 around the country. But is this a new trend–are random college students really trying to create “white student communities,” or just a bunch of annoying trolls?

I’m happy to announce it appears to be the latter–The Daily Beast has reported that the Facebook pages for the white student unions are being created by a bunch of racist trolls.

Those white-student-union Facebook pages are probably fake: https://t.co/O6npzWSFQG pic.twitter.com/dpXm0FRx2x

— New York Magazine (@NYMag) November 24, 2015

The message boards 4Chan and 8Chan as well as the white supremacist site Daily Stormer appear to be propelling the creation of the pages. Gotta love the internet, and its amazing power to connect assholes regardless of location.

According to The Daily Beast, the goals of these idiots are pretty straightforward:

These trolls’ strategy is to mimic the black student activist groups whose campus protests have made headlines this month. They purport to highlight racial double-standards, asking why white students should not be allowed to organize the way minority students do. The answer is relatively straightforward (American universities are often majority white, with curricula and administrative systems that privilege white students), but 8channers are counting on some students to fall for their rhetoric.

The pages have all essentially been created within the last week, lending credence to the theory that there’s a concentrated and new effort to create them. Additionally, many of the pages use similar language, for example introducing the pages as “a safe space to support and promote the interests of students of European descent at [relevant university name]!” The following description has also been found on a number of pages:

We affirm the dignity and ancestry of our proud people who have gifted the world with countless works of beauty, science, and wisdom, and are committed to promoting a dialogue and political resistance that will secure a future for our posterity and spirit. … At the same time, we do not wish to denigrate or harm any other group or ethnicity.

After their creation, the pages have been posting a variety of articles, including those about high profile racial controversies at schools like Mizzou and Yale, or articles that are critical of the Black Lives Matter movement and the concept of white privilege.

Schools that have been affected have, for the most part, issued statements that they’re trying to get the pages taken down, and that they’re not supported by the administration. Many schools have also indicated their support for students of color on their campuses. Additionally, NYU–one of the highest profile schools to get targeted–threatened legal action against the trolls for using NYU’s logo without permission and breaking copyright law.

So no, there’s not suddenly a ton of students across the country making “White Student Union” pages, or trying to start “White Student Union” organizations. But thanks, trolls, for making sure my faith in humanity is, as per usual, very low.

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

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Harvard Law is currently on edge as police officers investigate a possible hate crime on campus. Black tape was placed over the faces of portraits of Harvard Law’s black professors in Wasserstein Hall, where more than 180 professor’s portraits are displayed.

In response to yesterday’s protests, cowards have covered the faces of Harvard Law’s Black professors w/ black tape. pic.twitter.com/IuNd9ckucj

— the other one (@imfromraleigh) November 19, 2015

BREAKING: Overnight at @Harvard Law, portraits of black faculty desecrated in response to black student activism pic.twitter.com/tlJbDrkQUV

— Graham White (@GrahamWhite1010) November 19, 2015

The tape appeared despite many protests around the country about the treatment of students of color at schools such as Mizzou and Yale. Other schools have protested incidents on their own campuses, or protested in solidarity with schools and students nationwide. At Harvard, the day before the tape was found, undergraduate students marched with nearby Tufts University students in solidarity for Mizzou and Yale.

The tape that was used on the black professors’ portraits appears to have been taken from a nearby demonstration protesting the law school seal. Students placed black tape over a seal located in Wasserstein Hall. The seal comes from the family of Isaac Royall Jr., a well-known and ruthless slave owner. The campus group Royall Must Fall or (RMF) is dedicated to getting the logo removed from official use at Harvard Law.  

Royall was a slaver family, $ helped fund @Harvard Law and their shield is part of law school logo @carltonwilliamspic.twitter.com/5vZYdZLwWW — Wendi C. Thomas (@wendi_c_thomas) November 20, 2015

After the defacements were discovered on Thursday morning, students interrupted Dean Martha Minow’s class to discuss the issue. All said and done, more than 300 concerned students, staff, and faculty met on Thursday afternoon to discuss the incident and how to move forward, and police are still investigating it as a hate crime. There have been a wide range of reactions at Harvard Law in light of the incident, from shock to horror to (most depressingly) a lack of surprise. For example, A.J. Clayburn, a student, told CNN: 

Speaking as a student of color, I know that, while I am hurt and saddened, I am not surprised. This is merely a symptom of the greater systemic racism that currently permeates this law school and legal institutions in general.

The black tape from the portraits was quickly removed, and instead many students left post it notes on the affected professors’ portraits praising and applauding them. 

I love my HLS students! They’ve replaced the act of defacement with “love notes” to all the black faculty. pic.twitter.com/6LLHEbY9bA — Ronald S. Sullivan (@ProfRonSullivan) November 19, 2015

While it’s a nice touch, it’s obviously not going to make the problems at Harvard Law, or the overall protests and air of discontent at many of our nation’s preeminent educational institutions, go away. The investigation is pending, and tensions are clearly still palpable.

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Police Investigate Possible Hate Crime at Harvard Law appeared first on Law Street.

I don’t know that we need a new think piece on the controversy on Mizzou, or on the email backlash at Yale. We don’t need to publish another op-ed on the developments at Ithaca and at Clairmont McKenna. You don’t need another talking head questioning whether this will be a growing trend among college students. Counterpoints to counterpoints, unsubstantiated claims on both sides of the aisle, social media feuds–we have plenty of all of those. And we especially don’t need these things from a privileged white girl a few years out of college who has no academic background in these issues nor any connection to any of these places, and can’t possibly know what students, particularly students of color, are experiencing there.

So ironically–here’s my opinion: all of us who aren’t at Mizzou, Yale, Ithaca, or Clairmont McKenna, let’s all just shut up for a few. Seriously. Let’s take a couple of minutes and shut the hell up, put our metaphorical pens down, and listen instead. Let’s listen to the people who are there.

This isn’t to say that I don’t have my own opinions–I do. I freely share them in my personal life.  I stand #InSolidarityWithYale, #InSolidaritywithMizzou, I try my best to be an ally, with the recognition that I don’t always do as good job as I could. And I don’t pretend to know what will fix these clearly deep seated, uncomfortable, and visceral problems in American society.

But in my professional life, I’m hesitant to share these, because I can only imagine that my voice adds to that tangled mess of op-eds, thinkpieces, and social media snippets that I believe no longer make a difference.

Here’s the thing: a lot of the people who write these pieces, like me, probably have an opinion. They probably feel strongly about one side of the debate or another. But they also realize something–we as writers and journalists in this 24/7 news cycle are tasked to write about the things that people are talking about. There are trending hashtags and search engine optimization, and I’m not saying that everyone who has written their opinion about these controversies in recent days are doing so because they want to get clicks to their respective media outlets, but I’ve got to think that it is a motivating factor for at least some. And as long as we in the media can keep pushing both sides of the controversy, as long as we add to the din of voices overshadowing the students, the faculties, and the people who really matter, the less we listen.

Regardless of how you feel about the protests at Mizzou, Yale, Ithaca, Clairmont McKenna, regardless of how you feel about the way they’ve been conducted (which frankly, is none of most of our businesses), and regardless of your opinion on overall college culture–these things don’t happen by accident. Students don’t just decide to fabricate how they feel, protest, or push for change for no reason. By speaking over them–by putting the media’s voices over theirs–we perpetuate the problem of no one listening. We need to listen to them, and quiet our voices so that other people listen too. Because that’s the only way that their voices are going to be heard and allow the conversations that so desperately need to be had.

So, with all the weight of that hypocritical lecture, I’m going to shut up and listen. I hope you do the same.

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Fellow Writers: Let’s Shut Up about Mizzou and Yale appeared first on Law Street.

Even though Halloween ended more than a week ago, at Yale University it continues to be a major topic of conversation after two emails about Halloween costumes locked faculty and students in a heated debate over racial sensitivity and free speech.

Students are outraged with Associate Master of Silliman College Erika Christakis after she responded to the university’s Intercultural Affairs Committee’s annual Halloween email, which urged students to avoid wearing “culturally unaware and insensitive costumes” this Halloween. Now some students are demanding both she and her husband resign, after he came to her defense when confronted by several students this weekend.

In the video playlist below, Nicholas Christakis attempted to defend his wife’s statements before a large body of a protesting students, but the dialogue quickly escalated as students began screaming at the administrator that they no longer feel as if Yale is a safe place for them.

But why are they so upset?

The campus’ contention boils down to Erika Christakis’ critique of the university’s emailed cultural appropriation warning. She wrote,

I don’t wish to trivialize genuine concerns about cultural and personal representation, and other challenges to our lived experience in a plural community. I know that many decent people have proposed guidelines on Halloween costumes from a spirit of avoiding hurt and offense. I laud those goals, in theory, as most of us do. But in practice, I wonder if we should reflect more transparently, as a community, on the consequences of an institutional (which is to say: bureaucratic and administrative) exercise of implied control over college students.

…

Is there no room anymore for a child or young person to be a little bit obnoxious… a little bit inappropriate or provocative or, yes, offensive? American universities were once a safe space not only for maturation but also for a certain regressive, or even transgressive, experience; increasingly, it seems, they have become places of censure and prohibition.

She also added a message from her husband writing,

Nicholas says, if you don’t like a costume someone is wearing, look away, or tell them you are offended. Talk to each other. Free speech and the ability to tolerate offense are the hallmarks of a free and open society.

The email sparked controversy with many students, who felt as if her and her husband’s opinions were tantamount to racial insensitivity toward minority students. As a result more than 740 Yale undergraduates, graduate students, alumni, faculty, and even students from other universities signed an open letter to Christakis which says that her email “trivializes the harm done by these tropes and infantilizes the student body to which the request was made.” The letter reads:

To ask marginalized students to throw away their enjoyment of a holiday, in order to expend emotional, mental, and physical energy to explain why something is offensive, is — offensive.

The debate comes at a time when racial tension is at an all time high on the Ivy League campus. According to Vox, one of Yale’s residential colleges has long been at the center of racial controversy since it is named in honor of former Yale graduate John C. Calhoun, a known white supremacist. And during Halloween weekend, a black female student accused the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity of denying her entrance to a party that was for “white girls only,” which isn’t the first racist accusation made against the fraternity. The fraternity has vehemently denied her allegations, but that hasn’t stopped others from coming forth with similar stories.

Yale College’s dean Jonathan Holloway has said that his office is in the process of investigating the accusation. Yale’s president, Peter Salovey, also seems to be taking the campus heightened racial climate seriously. He reportedly met with 50 students on Thursday night to discuss the current controversy.

Alexis Evans

Alexis Evans is an Assistant Editor at Law Street and a Buckeye State native. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and a minor in Business from Ohio University. Contact Alexis at aevans@LawStreetMedia.com.

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Recently, some Stanford Law students realized that they could request access to their admissions records in accordance with the 1974 Family Education Rights and Privacy Act. Students around the country, including some at Yale Law, caught wind of this and requested to see their records as well. So, how did Yale respond? By deleting all of its admissions data, of course.

Now Yale Law School will continue to delete all of its admissions evaluation data after each annual admissions cycle. Included in this data are numerical evaluations made by Yale Law School officials and faculty and the identities of the deciding individuals. This decision was made by law school administrators without any sort of announcement, and the school had already received multiple FERPA requests before the records were deleted.

This practice is not completely new for Yale–before they had electronic applications starting in 2001, applications were submitted on paper and were discarded after each year.  In an email, Yale Law School Associate Dean Asha Rangappa said: “recent FERPA requests prompted us to look at our record-keeping practices, and the decision was made to revert to our previous practice, which was to discard evaluation records after they had fulfilled their intended purpose.”

According to Rangappa, this decision was made to protect the professors at the school. Giving students access to their admissions records would mean giving them access to the notes and numerical evaluations made by the professors throughout the admissions process. These professors are the ones that go on to ultimately decide who get accepted into the prestigious law school, and allowing students to see those decisions may lead to tensions between students and faculty.

Rangappa also stressed that, “candid evaluations provided by faculty members and others are a critical part of the law school admissions process, and if faculty reviewers knew that this information could be shared with admitted students, they might be reluctant to participate in the process.”

Professors like Akhil Amar, who is also faculty chair of Yale Law School, understands this decision despite that fact that it was made without the law professors’ knowledge or input. He acknowledges that the maintenance of school records is the responsibility of the administration, and does not necessarily involve the faculty.

In fact, Amar not only understands, but also agrees with the decision. He told the Yale Daily News that it’s important to preserve the unique quality of the admissions process, and deleting these records will help do just that. If every student has access to their admissions records, then it wouldn’t be long before information about the admissions process were to spread. According to Amar, the faculty who have participated in the admissions process were doing so assuming confidentiality and protection.

Additionally, Amar argues that FERPA does not actually allow students to examine their admissions records. According to Amar, the purpose of FERPA is to ensure that future employers or other schools receive the correct student record.  Students are allowed to see their academic records to ensure that all of the information contained in them is correct. However, no one else will ever need to see the students’ admissions records. Amar stated:

As I understand the basic purpose of the law, it is to allow students to have access to files that perhaps might be visible to various outsiders — employers and judges and the like — to correct their records. When it comes to admissions decisions, that is not part of their academic record; that is not shared with anyone. FERPA is about giving the student privacy and a certain control of the information so that the student can correct any mistakes, and none of that applies to admissions information.

Students, however, had mixed reviews of the decision. Some students, like a 3L named Matt Kemp, understood it. According to Kemp, he understands the desire of the faculty to maintain privacy and protection throughout the admissions process, but also believes that the purpose of FERPA is to allow students to see their admissions records.

Others, like 3L Dennis Owrutsky, considered the decision to be “irresponsible.” He believes that in deleting the records, the school lost valuable insight into the admissions process. He said that “[The law school] now lacks the resources to evaluate itself objectively.”

While there were a range of responses to the decision, most students do agree that Yale Law School did not have a legal obligation to preserve the data. It will be interesting to see the response to increased awareness about FERPA. Will more students across the country start asking to see their admissions records? And if so, will other schools follow in Yale’s footsteps and take action in order  to preserve the integrity of their admission processes?

Brittany Alzfan

Brittany Alzfan is a student at the George Washington University majoring in Criminal Justice. She was a member of Law Street’s founding Law School Rankings team during the summer of 2014. Contact Brittany at staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Yale Law School Deletes Admissions Records After Student Requests appeared first on Law Street.

Research and analysis done by Law Street’s Law School Rankings team: Anneliese Mahoney, Brittany Alzfan, Erika Bethmann, Matt DeWilde, and Natasha Paulmeno.

Click here to read more coverage on Law Street’s Law School Specialty Rankings 2014.

Click here for information on rankings methodology.

Featured image courtesy of [Pradipta Mitra via Wikimedia Commons]

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Top 10 Law Schools for Business Law: #10 Yale Law School appeared first on Law Street.

Research and analysis done by Law Street’s Law School Rankings team: Anneliese Mahoney, Brittany Alzfan, Erika Bethmann, Matt DeWilde, and Natasha Paulmeno.

Click here to read more coverage on Law Street’s Law School Specialty Rankings 2014.

Click here for information on rankings methodology.

Featured image courtesy of [Pradipta Mitra via Wikimedia Commons]

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

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