The Takeover of America's Legal System
Common Sense | Aaron Sibarium
“A groundbreaking piece on how the legal system in America, as one prominent liberal scholar put it, is at risk of becoming ‘a totalitarian nightmare.’” For anyone in the legal profession, or anyone interested in the future of American democracy, this piece by Sibarium is must-read.
“The politicization and tribalism of campus life have crowded out old-fashioned expectations about justice and neutrality. The imperatives of race, gender and identity are more important to more and more law students than due process, the presumption of innocence, and all the norms and values at the foundation of what we think of as the rule of law…”
Siberium goes on to discuss the role of critical race theory in law schools, new mandates by the ABA, and the resulting impact on views of the American legal system and teaching itself.
“Trial verdicts that do not jibe with the new politics are seen as signs of an inextricable hate—and an illegitimate legal order…”
“Harvard Law School Professor Randall Kennedy said that, until recently, he’d thought that fears of law schools becoming illiberal—shutting down unpopular views or voices—had been overblown. ‘I’ve changed my mind,’ said Kennedy…‘I think that there really is a big problem…’”
Siberium explained, “The problem has come not just from students, but from administrators, who often foment the forces they capitulate to. Administrators now outnumber faculty at some universities... Several law professors bemoaned the proliferation of diversity, equity, and inclusion offices, which, they said, tend to validate student grievances and encourage censorship…'“
“A Harvard Law professor told me that students face ‘social death’ if they buck the consensus…[another professor warned] ‘Law schools are in crisis…the truth doesn’t matter much. The game is to signal one’s virtue.’”
The crisis extends beyond law school into corporate America and law firms: “‘Partners are being blindsided by associates who they think are liberals in their own image,’ an attorney in Washington, D.C., told me. ‘But they’re not. The associates want to burn the place down…’”
“‘It’s much worse than McCarthyism,’” Alan Dershowitz, a professor emeritus at Harvard Law, told me. ‘McCarthyism was a reflection of dying, old views. They were not the future. But the people today who are imposing litmus tests for who they represent—they are the future.’”
“At stake…[is] the American justice system itself. How we govern ourselves. What we mean by democracy and the rule of law.”
The long-form piece is worth a read.
