Legal News

Scalia: U. of Chicago Law Lost Its Conservative Cred

By Dan Slater

What with the summer SCOTUS break we’ve been having a bit of Justice Scalia withdrawal around here. But recently he’s been back on tour, stopping yesterday in Chicago, where he served up a withering critique of the University of Chicago’s new liberal bent.

According to this piece in the Chicago Sun-Times, Scalia told 500 members of the Federalist Society that, back in the days when he used to teach at Chicago — from 1977 to 1982 — the courses had more rigor and the school had a more conservative ethos.

“I regret it,” Scalia said. “I don’t think the University of Chicago is what it was in my time. I would not recommend it to students looking for a law school as I would have years ago. It has changed considerably and intentionally. It has lost the niche it once had as a rigorous and conservative law school.”

Scalia also had advice for students. “I took nothing but bread-and-butter classes, not ‘Law and Poverty,’ or other made-up stuff,” said Scalia, a Harvard law grad. “Take serious classes,” he urged students. “There’s so much law to learn. Don’t waste your time.”

And of course a Scalia speech wouldn’t be a Scalia speech without a shot at his perceived “activist” colleagues on the Court. “What did I learn at Harvard Law School or at my practice in Ohio or in the federal government that qualifies me to determine whether there ought to be — and therefore is — a right to abortion or to homosexual sodomy or a right to suicide?” Scalia asked. “I don’t know any more about that than Joe Six-pack.”

Correction: An earlier version of this post incorrectly stated that Scalia’s speech took place at the University of Chicago.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on September 17, 2008 (boomark / email).