Legal News

Biden?s Future as a Con Law Prof in Limbo Through Campaign Season

By Dan Slater

While we’re on the topics of Joe Biden and law schools, now’s as good a time as ever to point out some of his ivory tower cred. At Opinio Juris, Peter Spiro discusses a 1988 law review article, entitled “The War Power at Constitutional Impasses,” that Biden (U. of Delaware, Syracuse law) co-authored with his then-aide John B. Ritch III, who’s now the director general of the World Nuclear Association.

The article is 20 years old, and, besides, constitutional war powers is pretty heavy stuff for late August. So let’s turn to a more pressing question: What’s going to happen to Biden’s Con law seminar at Delaware’s Widener Law School.

Biden has taught the seminar since 1991, alongside Professor Robert Hayman Jr. But according to Widener spokeswoman Mary Allen, Biden hasn’t committed himself to anything yet (even though the class began on Saturday, the same day Biden was named Obama’s running-mate). “We’re continuing to stay in communication with him and his scheduling people,” Allen told the Law Blog, “and we hope to work out something where he can visit the class. But this will not be a typical semester.”

According to a report on Roll Call, Hayman said that, in the past, he’s managed the administrative duties for the class and read all of the student papers. He then proposes grades to Biden. Biden may then suggest changes to the grades Hayman has suggested, but Hayman said that is rare. “I haven’t had the audacity to ask when he has approved my grades, ‘Well, did you really read them?’” Hayman said.

Oh, and Biden’s salary? According to Biden’s 2007 financial disclosure forms, Widener pays him a $20,500 “teaching stipend,” which Roll Call says places Biden in the high end of the pay scale for adjunct university professors.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on August 26, 2008 (boomark / email).