PRESTOPUNDIT -- "It's a team sport, baby!"

Be Afraid. Law Professor David Bernstein:

A classmate of mine, now a law professor, told me recently that half of my first-year class wouldn't speak to me first semester of law school, for political reasons. I thought half sounded like a lot, though I knew I was "boycotted" by some at the time. I had always been mildly curious as to why .. so I asked this classmate, who was himself quite left-wing, but always friendly. He responded, "Well, it's what you said in Contracts." "That's strange," I replied, "I don't remember Contracts class being that controversial; we didn't discuss any of the truly hot button issues for the left--such as race, abortion, gay rights--in Contracts--and, in any event, my (libertarian) views on such issues wouldn't have been so objectionable to them, anyway. So what did I say in Contracts class that led to my ostracism?" He said, and I swear he seemed at least 80% serious, "well, you kept saying that contracts should be enforced!"

This is the character and outlook of the people the universities are churning out by the thousands. And these are the folks who are filling the tenure track jobs at the law schools -- and the local, state and (recently) federal bench. These are not people who believe in sticking with principle or the rule of law -- such things are the enemy of their vision of the world (see Hayek's Law, Legislation and Liberty). They believe rather in whatever expediency gets them to their prefered end -- almost inevitably half-baked. Is it any wonder the rule of law has broken down in San Francisco, Chicago, and Massachusetts? No, it's not.

UPDATE: Here's an alternative view on what is happening in San Francisco.

UPDATE II: Xlrq has some specifics on the laws being broken in San Francisco.

Posted by Greg Ransom | TrackBack