HMMM:  “Four Reasons that Heterodox Academy Failed.“

JOSH BLACKMAN:  “Will Chief Justice Roberts Respond to Senator Wyden’s Attack on Judge Kacsmaryk?“

STOP PUTTING MEN IN WOMEN’S PRISONS:  Theodore Dalrymple is the greatest.

ACCREDITORS HAVE GOTTEN TOO BIG FOR THEIR BRITCHES:  A recent example is the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools’ threat to the UNC Board of Trustees’ admirable effort to create a “School of Civic Life and Leadership.”  I hope the Board will be undeterred.

I have previously written about the role accrediting agencies play as “cartel enforcer” for race- and sex-preferential admissions and faculty hiring.  And I’ve suggested a legislative solution.

Here at USD School of Law, the dean has told us that the ABA’s accrediting arm has put us on notice that we must increase the number of women on our faculty right away or face de-accreditation.  Some of my colleagues are either panic-stricken over this or pretend to be.  It’s hard to tell the difference.  Very few (but not zero) of my colleagues have to fortitude to protest the ABA’s tactics.

I am not one of those who believes that we can entirely do without accreditation.  As long as the federal government gives out bundles of cash to colleges and universities, somebody has to be the gatekeeper who decides who will be allowed on the gravy train and who won’t be.  Concentrating that power in federal hands would be a mistake.  Any conservative or libertarian who thinks that federal bureaucrats can be kept under control by an ever-so-vigilant GOP President or White House has been asleep for decades.  At least under the present system, power is in theory decentralized.  Giving the power to the states has some advantages.  But it also has some serious disadvantages.  No state, red, blue or purple polka dots will ever act to cut off a local college or university that employs more than a few people from its federal funding.  Voters don’t like that kind of thing.  There is thus a built-in bias toward keeping the money coming.

HOLY TOLEDO:  “New York Hero Chases Down Carjacker with Grandma & Baby Inside.”  Sounds like something out of a movie.

RICH VEDDER:  “The Collegiate War on Excellence and Descent into Mediocrity.”  Interesting factoid:  Around 1960, the typical college student spent about 40 hours a week in class, studying, writing papers, working in the lab, etc.  Today, it is less than 30 hours.  (But, of course, grades are much higher!)

IF THE PROFESSOR HAD BEEN ANTI-FEMALE  INSTEAD OF ANTI-MALE, THE STORY WOULD BE DIFFERENT:  “Stanford denies ethics probe into female law professor accused of extreme anti-male bias.“

MORE ON REPARATIONS:  St. Louis here.  St. Paul here.  This stuff is not going away.  A whole generation of young people are being taught (by Disney, no less) this is the way to a just and equitable future.

IT’S TERRIBLE FOR STUDENTS, TOO:  “Soft-on-Consequences Discipline in Terrible for Teachers.”  (And don’t let anybody give you any baloney about this issue.)

HOT! HOT!:  Pete Kirsanow, Dan Morenoff and I explain why the argument that Title IX and Title VII require that transgender individuals be assigned to the bathroom, locker room and shower that they “identify with” is … well … just plain wacky and not in keeping with the law.  (It’s an amicus curiae brief that we filed a few days ago in the Sixth Circuit.)

IT’LL BE A STORY TO TELL THE GRANDKIDS:  Cute baby rescued from earthquake in Turkey after 128 hours.

BUT TRUMP HIMSELF ONCE SUPPORTED IT:  Trump rips DeSantis for once supporting privatizing Social Security.

THIS IS OBVIOUSLY TRAGIC, BUT WE NEED TO GET SERIOUS ABOUT CRIME:  Social justice warrior/anarchist/baker Jen Angel was recently dragged to death by a smash-and-grab robber.  The victim was well known for her opposition to incarceration.

JUSTICE?:  California man found “not guilty” of DUI by a jury of his peers on the ground that he was acting out of necessity.  He had been caught cheating on his wife and needed to escape two angry women.

HOT!:  My colleague J. Christian Adams discusses Americans’ civil right to be free from violent crime (and how the progressive members of the Commission on Civil Rights’s thwarted our efforts to look into rising crime).

THIS SORT OF THING HAS A TENDENCY TO END BADLY:  Boston’s mayor just appointed two high school students to the city’s Reparations Task Force.  What do you suppose their role will be?

Two members of Boston’s “Reparations Task Force” are high school students. Exactly what is the mayor thinking?https://t.co/YEjG9DmyMP

— Gail Heriot (@GailHeriot) February 8, 2023

MORE:  Fulton County to study reparations.

SOUTH BEND:  Reparations resolution here too.

SACRAMENTO THINKING ABOUT REPARATIONS TOO:  The idea seems to be going viral.

SAN FRANCISCO TO HOLD HEARING ON REPARATIONS:  Here we go.

MORE REPARATIONS:  Wealthy British family to pay reparations.

REPARATIONS IN THE DARNEDEST PLACES:  Northampton, Massachusetts eyes reparations.

JEFF JACOBY:  We’ve been paying reparations for almost sixty years.  That’s what LBJ’s War on Poverty was supposed to be,

DISNEY GOES IN FOR REPARATIONS:  I miss the days of Mickey, Donald, and Goofy.

You really do need to watch this. It’s bizarre. https://t.co/oZe9Qr9k62

— Gail Heriot (@GailHeriot) February 6, 2023

PETER WOOD & DAVID RANDALL:  Teach Black History, Not Activism.