Law.com, Growing Chorus of Law School Faculty, Leadership Speaking Out Against Threats to Rule of Law:
In the wake of the Trump administration’s recent string of unprecedented actions against law firms, courts and universities, an increasing number of law professors and leaders have expressed concerns over constitutional violations and threats to the rule of law.
Faculty at New York University School of Law are the latest to join law school faculty at Harvard, Yale, Stanford, and the University of California at Los Angeles, Berkeley and Davis in issuing an open letter to condemn the administration’s recent actions.
“The Administration’s executive orders targeting individual lawyers and law firms have no basis in law and are contrary to the protections of our Constitution,” the April 17 NYU Law faculty letter states. “Similarly, government threats to impeach judges based on disagreements with their judicial decisions are inconsistent with the fundamental principles underlying judicial independence, principles that have been respected by political actors of all stripes for over 200 years. An independent judiciary is essential to the preservation of the rule of law and our most basic constitutional rights.” …
“I think [the legal community is] worried that there’s going to be a loss of independence,” retired Judge Jeremy Fogel, who is executive director of the Berkeley Judicial Institute, told Law.com in an interview. “People worry that they won’t be able to say certain things, that lawyers won’t be able to represent certain people, that judges will be intimidated for doing certain things. There are a lot of fears.”
However, since many law deans—including most of the so-called T-14—are bound by university neutrality policies or similar guidelines that prevent or discourage them from making statements on political issues, most T-14 deans have largely remained quiet, with a handful of exceptions.
University of California, Berkeley School of Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky, who has long been outspoken against the Trump administration’s actions, is the only dean to sign the letter organized by his school’s faculty. …
In late March, roughly 80 law deans also signed a joint letter in response to the president’s actions targeting law firms. Only four of those were from the T-14: Georgetown University Law Center Dean William Treanor, Cornell Law School Dean Jens David Ohlin, University of California, Irvine School of Law Dean Austen Parrish, and UC Berkeley’s Chemerinsky.
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