Legal Commentary

Back in July, when I made a pitch for the appointment of legal academics to the bench as a bipartisan move, I got a mostly skeptical response. Scott Greenfield even accused me of elitism, and my academic colleagues all engaged in a lot of self-hate, doubting whether they were worthy of presumptive Article III honors.

Now Carl Tobias at Richmond is repeating my plea, noting several obvious selections -- Pam Karlan, Kathleen Sullivan, Elena Kagan, etc.

Of course, Tobias leaves out the controversial part: We academics have to take the pledge to support our fellow prawfs regardless of the nominees' ideological persuasion. The faculty of Pepperdine ideally should sign a manifesto endorsing all of the names listed by Tobias. (And the faculty at Yale should endorse an analogous list of conservatives when a Republican President is elected -- e.g., Adrian Vermeule, Eric Posner, John Harrison, Caleb Nelson, etc.)

As I said before, it is time for us academics to regain some credibility with the political nation. Take the Pledge: Endorse a fellow academic whose politics you hate.