When it comes to picking a law school dean the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville had one question that carried a lot of weight in the hiring process: What is your stance on high school student athletes taking hormonal puberty treatment? Not because the law school has a prize relay race team or anything — they just want to make sure that any notions of gender that match up with contemporary understandings of sexual differentiation don’t make their way in to law school curricula. The glib explanation given by Bart Hester was that the people of Arkansas wouldn’t want somebody that doesn’t know the difference between a man and a woman teaching lawyers, but I think the proper pedagogical choice runs counter to the narrative Republicans are pushing. Trust me, if you select a dean that can adequately navigate the complexities of sex and gender enough to know when to use he/him, she/they and xe/xim, they’d have no problem teaching a future generation of lawyers when a property interest will vest, should it do so at all.
You don’t have to be a star issue spotter to recognize that Emily Suski signing a brief in support of a cut-and-dried Title IX issue shouldn’t be a disqualifying factor. But not falling in line with political doxa is, and Hester flirting with the idea of the legislature cutting some of U of A’s funding is hard to ignore. That’s what we in the biz call a threat. Law students at U of A have enough sense to see what is going on and some of them joined together to protest Suski’s firing. Ark Times has coverage:
Law students at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville are putting on funeral attire this morning to mourn the death of academic freedom in the state. The public is invited to join them, starting at 11:15 a.m. at the entrance to the Leflar Law Center.
A group called Arkansas Law Students for Academic Freedom is planning this demonstration and mile-long walk for today in the aftermath of a confusing and embarrassing blowup in the hiring process for a new law school dean.
Students should make use of the right to protest for as long as they have it. Hester’s comfort in dangling the legislative purse, Ken Levy’s legal trouble over the governor not liking his Trump bad mouthing, and JD Vance’s jawboning going after anyone who mentioned he-who-must-not-be-named are all recent parts of a trend toward cracking down on dissenting opinions and thoughts. Not that the students don’t pick up on the gravitas of the situation; it is harder to come up with a more heavy-handed approach than what they’re going with. But it is appropriate given the circumstances.
What a dumb reason to fire someone after two years of trying to fill the position.
Law Students Protest Ouster Of Would-Be Dean Over Her Legal Analysis On Transgender Athletes [Ark Times]
Earlier: Law School Dean Survives Two-Year Search, Falls To One-Week Culture War
Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s . He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who is learning to swim, is interested in critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at cwilliams@abovethelaw.com and by tweet at @WritesForRent.
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