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Columbia Law School Falls Down the #Ferguson Rabbit Hole

Columbia Law School Falls Down the #Ferguson Rabbit Hole

#ShutItDown? Don’t mind if we do.

The slacktivists at Columbia Law School have found a new way to exploit the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner to the very convenient benefit of race card hustlers everywhere—

they’re canceling finals.

That’s right. One of the finest law schools in the country is allowing the collective #outrage of its flock of immature, untested baby lawyers to completely derail the academic integrity of its exam system.

Via Power Line Blog:

The grand juries’ determinations to return non-indictments in the Michael Brown and Eric Garner cases have shaken the faith of some in the integrity of the grand jury system and in the law more generally. For some law students, particularly, though not only, students of color, this chain of events is all the more profound as it threatens to undermine a sense that the law is a fundamental pillar of society designed to protect fairness, due process and equality.

The law school has a policy and set of procedures for students who experience trauma during exam period. In accordance with these procedures and policy, students who feel that their performance on examinations will be sufficiently impaired due to the effects of these recent events may petition Dean Alice Rigas to have an examination rescheduled.

They’re also providing counseling and developing a speaker series to encourage open dialogue.

I’m not quite sure what the powers that be at Columbia are smoking, but whatever it is, it has made them forget what it actually takes to be a lawyer. I’m not sure how many of you reading this have ever gone through law school, but part of the educational process is reading things that some may find upsetting. My first internship involved criminal appeals in a Detroit court, and all I’ll say is that I saw things. Upsetting things. Things that make you angry. But I did the work and learned from it because that’s part of the job.

Any decent law professor will counsel his students to not absorb the trauma of the cases they handle. I firmly believe that engaging in a little bit of healthy empathy allows lawyers to form better arguments, but students who get so bogged down in how they feel about particular instances of injustice that they can’t complete an exam have no business becoming lawyers.

This is a dangerous precedent, not only because it breeds incompetence, but because it conditions these students to ignore facts and standards. I had a great professor in law school who beat us over the head with “WHAT IS THE STANDARD? WHAT IS THE STANDARD?” until we could recite legal standards in our sleep. Every law professor at Columbia knows that it’s impossible to know all the facts in the Garner case because the full grand jury report hasn’t been released. They also know that a grand jury in Missouri curated thousands of pages of evidence that led to no true bill against Darren Wilson.

And yet, here we are, encouraging our progeny to ignore everything they should be learning in favor of embracing everything the progressive outrage machine demands they should be feeling. They’re not encouraging productive action; they’re allowing their students to become run away with their emotions in a situation where the standard has produced a socially difficult result.

Riots don’t scare me; this, however, scares me.

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Comments

I was in college when the Kent State shooting happened. One of our professors told the class that, if they were too upset to continue, they could quit the class with their current grade. Then he added, “Of course your current grade is incomplete.”

Most everyone managed to control their rage and complete the course.

“they’re canceling finals.” You stretched it a bit.

But, as you point out, isn’t this the next generation of lawyers, prosecutors and judges that should be taught to examine the facts and the law with rational thought rather than their feelings? And the professors encourage it. Read an article on CNN last week where one admitted as much. Stunning.

OK, Amy, WRONG. Gross overstatement of the truth.

They are NOT “cancelling finals”. They are OFFERING to reschedule them on a written request.

Now, is THAT crazy? Yah. When I was a kid in Kulhifornia, my hills burned every few years. NOBODY cancelled our classes, even though many of us were forced to evacuate.

Of course, in those days, nobody shut down an interstate because there was some diesel on it. We used diesel as a burn remedy.

MouseTheLuckyDog | December 8, 2014 at 3:20 pm

Professor Kingston must be spinning in his grave,

Emo is the new standard,at least musically:

Dream the Impossible Emo.
I Did It Emo Way.
The Eye of the Emo.
He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Emo.
Through the Emo.
Emo On.
Get up. Emo up.
Gonna Emo Now.
I Beleive I can Emo.
Emo Yourself.
Emo’s Gonna Stop Us Now.
Somewhere Over My Emo.
You Emo Me Up.
and , of course,
I’ll Sue Myself If I Have To, To Show You I Care.

I’ll make sure I never employ a recent graduate of Columbia Law School. I can be certain they were left unprepared and untested by the faculty of that school.

    healthguyfsu in reply to Barry. | December 9, 2014 at 3:47 pm

    This kind of crap is happening EVERYWHERE in higher education…I’m on the front lines so I know about it. Get ready for your lawyer’s to be weaker, your doctors to be dumber, and your politicians to be slimier (if that’s even possible).

Henry Hawkins | December 8, 2014 at 3:50 pm

“Lawdy, Lawdy, ah do believe these court decisions have given me th’ vapuhs! Ah’ll have t’ set a spell till mah po’ heart stops a-flutterin’!”

Columbia faculty just did a big dramatic back of the hand to the forehead and collapsing faint, all the while peeking from behind their hand to see if anyone’s buying this crap.

College academic standards are far lower than they should be. But they need students to pay salaries, so let them in and let them pass.

These little pampered PC princesses are in for a rude awakening when they get out into the real world.

Grow up already.

Exactly the kind of Behavior I would expect from the Alma Mater of our Glorious Leader. (/sarc….well only the Glorious Leader part.)

“Riots don’t scare me; this, however, scares me.”

Amy, I concur.

This is a very negative reflection on the law school and how they teach their students. If anyone, law students should understand that unless you personally have all the facts, you cannot sit in judgement and review the decision of a fact finding body. And as attorneys, even if you disagree with the results – and every trial lawyer has come upon a judge’s or jury’s decision that they con’t undertand – you learn, as a professional, to accept it. These poele are really taking advantage of a situation which should have nothing to do with thier education. If you are so upset by the grand jury’s decision, you should think twice about becoming a lawyer.