Seems Harvard is under attack by everyone these days.  One group has sued claiming bias in favor of white undergraduate applicants to the detriment of Asian students.  But Harvard Law School, including particularly the Harvard Law Review, is being sued on behalf of white males, claiming the membership on the prestigious Board of Editors and the selection of articles is biased in favor of “racial, gender and sexual orientation-based diversity.”

While I must confess that no one ever chased me to either join or write for the Review notwithstanding my patent male white-ness, I always understood that election to the Review was merit based and, hence, I was confident that my exclusion was wholly appropriate.  Further, it seems unclear who if anyone should be sued; the Review is a separate entity not owned or run by the University.  And while I guess I can understand why the same claims are being asserted against NYU and its law school also, the naming of US Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos seems attenuated.

Perhaps if I had in fact been named to Law Review I would have better understanding of the legal issues involved here.

But since the lawsuit names no one who has been or is about to be injured by whatever the policies of Review may be, I don’t understand how someone can bring a lawsuit in order to establish an idea or practice, as opposed to the seeking of a judicial determination of an actual case.  Indeed, lawyers for the University argued as much in Federal Court yesterday.

Not to slip into policy debate, particularly as my fact base is derivative and limited, but if the demographics of our country are changing then we would expect that the Review membership and the mix of submitting scholars would change also.  Further, one must suspect that if history is any guide, then the need for remedial action is to protect groups other than white males at Harvard Law School.

I must stop posting now and sit by my mailbox, awaiting my Law Review invitation.  It is about five decades late.  Mail service is so slow around the Holidays….