Take Monica Goodling (please) for example. Turns out that she is one of 150 graduates of Pat Robertson's Regent University Law school--one termed "tier four" by those who rate law schools, and one where the goal is to impose a Christian world view on the legal system. Ok, fine. Perhaps they are well-intentioned and nothing says that someone from a 136th ranked law school (only accredited since 96) can do a good job. But it appears that Ashcroft, Bush and Gonzales changed the rules to allow them to hire these particular lawyers to run amok in our justice system. From the Boston Globe:
Bush hired a woman from Regent to run his Personnel office--effectively opening the doors for Regent graduates. The impact? Well, one of them was to hire an inordinate number of untested lawyers to run offices like those devoted to Civil Rights which led to a huge drop in cases filed on voter rights cases.
Many of those who have Regent law degrees, including Goodling, joined the Department of Justice. Their path to employment was further eased in late 2002, when John Ashcroft , then attorney general, changed longstanding rules for hiring lawyers to fill vacancies in the career ranks. Previously, veteran civil servants screened applicants and recommended whom to hire, usually picking top students from elite schools.
In a recent Regent law school newsletter, a 2004 graduate described being interviewed for a job as a trial attorney at the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division in October 2003. Asked to name the Supreme Court decision from the past 20 years with which he most disagreed, he cited Lawrence v. Texas, the ruling striking down a law against sodomy because it violated gay people's civil rights.
"When one of the interviewers agreed and said that decision in Lawrence was 'maddening,' I knew I correctly answered the question," wrote the Regent graduate . The administration hired him for the Civil Rights Division's housing section -- the only employment offer he received after graduation, he said.
Bush and his people have made our political system a clone of the 19th century patronage system--one we tried to reform. But I suspect there is some good news here. Regent has flown under the radar screen for sometime even though John Ashcroft teaches there and Jay Sekulow runs the American Center for Law and Justice out of that same school and with the same funding. But the incompetence of the Justice department has the potential of bringing these schools and their approach into some scrutiny.
I once wrote that George Bush has been the worst thing for evangelicals because it has forced them to defend indefensible policies and look the other way while Bush did the most unChristian things. I think that the success of Regent might be bad for evangelicals as well.
6 comments:
I'll have to admit that I did feel a slight sense of joy at seeing some low-tier law school grads getting good jobs over the ones from snobby elite schools. I did not graduate from a top-tier school. I honestly don't know what tier they are in because I stopped paying attention to the rating system by US News, when I read several reports as to how flawed it was.
Once this sense of joy passed, I was troubled at these hiring practices. Personally, I think the justice department needs to do a better job with diversity. I am not just talking racial, ethnic diversity, but other factors. They need to hire people from all parts of the country, people that are from cities, people that are from rural areas, people from all different tiers of schools, people that were born in other countries, etc.
I hope this incident brings scrutiny to hiring practices and I also hope they don't return to just hiring Harvard and Yale grads.
Hey, I completely understand. My Ph.d isn't exactly from Harvard or Yale and I know firsthand the frustration of dealing with jackasses from both. Great schools, no doubt, but we all know people with the best pedigrees who are the worst people. Likewise, we all know people from inferior institutions who are great. And that was kind of my take here. As much as I loathe Pat Robertson, I understand that starting a new law school will take time, that to achieve accredidation and to get their students to pass the bar, they will have to hire competent people, etc. I also don't want to suggest that because someone comes from a tier 4 school that means they aren't welcome in public service.
But that all said, we should be hiring good people. I keep going back to this pesky issue of competence, but Bush has displayed a shocking lack of it. And many of his hires are people this spectactularly incompetent person thought competent--bad idea.
Streak, don't knock your doc -- it's from an excellent program for your specialty. And it has an outstanding athletic program.
I agree we should be hiring good people. Unfortunately, my state (Michigan) had a tendency to hire attorneys only from elite schools under the previous AG (who is now the governor). The current AG does not, but they are still very selective. From what I hear, the current department has improved in many areas because of this practice. In Michigan, the AG is elected and is answerable to the people, not to the person who appointed them.
I got my degrees from state schools, so I love ragging on Ivy Leaguers.
ubub, I am not badmouthing it, simply noting that taken as a Ph.D. granting university, it isn't as highly ranked as others--as I have found in my job search. All three of my degrees are from state schools and I have no problem with that.
Steve, we agree on this too. Competence should be the guide, not scholastic pedigree, and what the Bush people have done is simply to reverse the earlier bias. And this will ultimately undermine Christianity in the public sphere.
Streak- You must also take into consideration the "Holy Ground" aspect of your institution. I realize it doesn't necessarily translate into high paying jobs, but the time spent within a short distance of Owen Field certainly must make all other considerations trivial in comparison. . Later-BB
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