A question of balance
At Harvard Law School (HLS) on Friday, a panel of four leading legal scholars examined a single question: Is there a lack of intellectual diversity at law schools? James Lindgren, a law professor at Northwestern University, began with numbers, citing a study in which only 13.2 percent of faculty at the country’s 100 largest law schools reported being “Republican or Republican leaning.” Of law school faculty that have donated more than $200 to a political party, 81 percent have donated to Democrats (91 percent at HLS), according to the study. “My opinion is that there is some discrimination in law school hiring,” Lindgren said. Moderator David Barron, a Harvard Law professor, then gave the floor to HLS colleague Jack Goldsmith, who served as special counsel to the Department of Defense during the presidency of George W. Bush. Conservatives are sometimes caricatured at Harvard as people “who would turn back the clock in...