Ivy League Reality Check

“Isn’t This a Bit Much?” asked George Mason University professor David Bernstein on The Volokh Conspiracy blog on May 10 after hearing that President Obama had nominated Elena Kagan for the Supreme Court.

“The president went to Harvard, and barely defeated a primary opponent who went to Yale,” writes Prof. Bernstein. He concludes,

“The previous two presidents also went to Yale, with Bush I defeating another Harvard grad for the presidency. And once Elena Kagan gets confirmed, every Supreme Court Justice will have attended Harvard or Yale law schools.

“I know that Harvard and Yale attract a disproportionate percentage of America’s talented youth, but still, isn’t this a bit much? Are there no similarly talented individuals who attended other Ivy League schools, other private universities or (gasp!) even state law schools?”

According to his faculty page, “Professor Bernstein teaches Products Liability, Evidence, Constitutional Law I and II, and Expert and Scientific Evidence.”

SCOTUS nominee Kagan was the first female dean at Harvard Law School. “It was there where she supported the ouster of military recruiters on campus due to her distaste for the military’s ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy banning homosexuals from serving openly,” writes Kelly Chernenkoff on the Fox News’ White House View blog on May 10.

Other perspectives:

Bench Press via Tony Perkins

Joe Biden On Kagan Opposing School Military Recruiters: ‘She Was Right’ (VIDEO) via the Huffington Post

Bethany Stotts is a staff writer at Accuracy in Academia.

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