This is a hard story to piece together as there is always more behind the scenes than one can read in the press. The basic facts are that Ramsi A. Woodcock, a law professor at the J. David Rosenberg College of Law at the University of Kentucky has sued the university (and its president and provost) in federal court seeking to block the appointment as dean of U.S. District Judge Gregory Van Tatenhove (Judge Van Tatenhove is also a defendant). Woodcock has been in conflict with the university over disciplinary action taken during a prior deanship against Woodcock for allegedly antisemitic behavior. But the nature of the current suit is the allegation that Judge Van Tatenhove was named dean over the objection of a majority of the law faculty. If true, such an appointment would represent a break with longstanding principles of faculty governance (I’ll leave it to others to parse accreditation standards). This should attract everyone’s attention.