BY LETTERS EDITOR
Dear Editor:
I write to clarify a few points made in your September 15, 2005 article on the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy.
The article misleadingly suggests that the JLPP is a partisan, political publication. In fact, the Journal has no political or partisan affiliation.Ê We are not part of a political party; we do not lobby in support of legislation; we do notÊcampaign on behalf of candidates. This independence accords with our vision of the Journal as a forum for open intellectual discourse, as well as our 501(c)(3)status.
The JLPP is indeed unique for its editorial perspective, which may be broadly characterized as conservative. As our founders wrote 28 years ago, “There is no litmus test for conservatism. Indeed, the membership of our organization includes a broad range of conservatives, libertarians, and members of both major political parties.”This is still true: our members and our articles encompass a diverse — and sometimes conflicting — set of views and approaches to the law.
The JLPP’s broad readership and widespread influence, which your article correctly noted, attest to our valuable role in advancing legal scholarship. We invite all students interested in joining one of the nation’s most prestigious and widely circulated law journals to contact us at jlpp@law.harvard.edu
Sincerely,Jennifer CarterEditor-in-ChiefHarvard Journal of Law & Public Policy
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Dear Editor:
In your most recent edition, Kelly Brown wrote an article pointing out how conservative Harvard Law School students are oppressed by the liberal professors at Harvard Law School. In that article, Brown also pointed out that this unfortunate situation has existed for some thirty years or so.
These points are well made, and are beyond dispute. The same situation existed when I was a student at HLS during the years of 1987 to 1990, when the liberal professors crushed all open political debate under their “politically correct” high-heeled boots and open-toed sandals. Additionally, it should be mentioned and noted that these same left-wing professors destroyed any open debate by independent minded students, of which I was one. The professors expressed their open contempt for students “who could not or would not commit to one of the two dominant political parties in our country”. They raged when independent students didn’t view all debates within the narrow prism of left vs. right philosophies, and they fumed when free-thinking students expressed little interest in politics at all.
It became clear to the students of all persuasions, that many left-wing Harvard Law School professors placed their beliefs before fact-finding, they elevated the status of political parties above those students who worshiped higher powers of a religious nature, and they ignored those free-thinkers who would rather not have a political discourse at any moment, rather than listening to like-minded people endlessly agree with each other.
So, when Kelly Brown again points to the liberal bias of Harvard Law School professors, and the hostile and dim environment that they create, it comes as no surprise to those who have previously had to “run the gauntlet” in order to get beyond the guardians of political correctness. For thirty years they have guarded the gates of hell, just as those tortured former students who are now engraved into the stone outside Austin Hall are a tribute to those they over-loaded, trapped, and destroyed. The liberal professors broke the spirit of so many bright prospects that the large law firms had an ample supply of ground beef for their meat grinders; there was no bone left for them to be concerned over…
As for me, I drink to those free-thinkers, few though we may be. Unlikely to hold political power in a nation so corrupted by the privileged few (who endlessly try to simplify complex situations into sterile left vs right debate.) May the independently-minded students who have suffered so greatly at the hands of these fools find comfort every time they place the facts before their beliefs, instead of the opposite. May they rule the night, even as they cede away the power of daylight to those who are lesser creations than they!
Fair Winds and Following Seas,
Charles FacktorHarvard Law School Class of 1990