Legal Commentary

This presidential election has had much discussion about the voting preferences of academics, particularly law professors--from the legal advisory teams (consisting of many law professors) that every major-party candidate established during the primaries to the joke (made in this forum) about "Law Professors for McCain" holding their meeting in a booth in a diner somewhere between Chicago and South Bend to news and academic studies about where law professors and law faculties donate money.

I want to ask a more pedestrian question that arose with some colleagues: How appropriate is it for professors to include political signs or messages around their offices, particularly in the doorway? Is it OK to have a candidate poster on your door or on the walls of your office? How about in the window facing out onto campus, visible to all who walk by? Is there something about that space that ought to be "welcoming" to students of all stripes and views, such that a prominent visual display of one's political and partisan views is inappropriate? Is the office different than a classroom, where (I am guessing) most would believe it is inappropriate to display political preferences in that way? Or is this all simply a "grow-up-and-deal-with-it" issue for the students, something they should become accustomed to as they enter the legal world?



Cross-posted at Concurring Opinions, where I am guesting this month.