Legal Commentary

     So it?s day eight into my guest blogging stint here at Prawfsblawg, and I?m only now getting around to writing my first post.  I?d like to say I have a good excuse?that there was Law and Society stuff (wait, that was May); or AALS Planning Committee stuff; or AALS Mid-Year Meeting stuff (I?m on a ?Race and Sexuality? panel); or scholarship stuff.  These are good excuses, and true, but given the number of hours I?ve spent watching the French Open and NBA Finals, and reading for pleasure (the excellent novel Tinkers, by Paul Harding), it?s really hard to say I haven?t had a spare moment in eight days to post something.  But I do have an excuse of sorts.  I?m not sure it?s a valid excuse, but I?ll offer it nonetheless.  I?m going to blame my delay in posting?indeed my general unease about posting still?on the tenure year.

       The thing is I?m up for tenure this year.  And while I?m pretty sure I?ve satisfied the usual scholarship, teaching, and service requirements for tenure, there are always intangibles and really, anything could happen during the faculty vote, right?  So why take the risk by guest blogging?  I mean, I?ve been fine guest blogging here for the last two or three years, but this year is different, right?  It would be one thing if I had my own blog, or if I viewed blogging as an extension of my scholarship, or if I were inclined to blog about recent cases. (Actually, I toyed with the idea of writing about the Court?s decision in Berghius v. Thompson, which perhaps more than any prior case twists Miranda into a decision that benefits those in the know, akin to the way the ?benefit of clergy? seemed to benefit those in the know in the early 1700s.)  But for me, blogging is an opportunity to loosen up.  And that has risks.  A few years ago, I blogged a question: Do Women Blog?  One of the most frequent responses I received was that women professors, especially untenured women, saw blogging as too risky. Now, in my tenure year, I?m wondering if I?m feeling the same way.  I imagine a closed-door faculty meeting where one of my colleagues says, ?Sure, he?s met the requirements for tenure, but did you read some of his inane posts on Prawfsblawg??

    So here?s my question.  What, again, are the advantages to blogging?  And aren?t they outweighed by the disadvantages? I?m speaking specifically about the tenure year.