At the Bulwark, Cathy Young does her typically brilliant job of parsing the Antisemitism Awareness Act passed by the House by the crushing bipartisan vote of 320-91. The crux of the act is to adopt the definition of antisemitism by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance and to make clear that antisemitism is included under Title VI, prohibiting discrimination in education on the basis of race, color and national origin. What’s wrong with fixing a legally “non-binding” definition of antisemitism in education? As with so many things, it goes vague and overbroad at the fringes. But the ..read more

According to John Sailor, this is a watershed shift, the first elite school to end the practice of requiring diversity statements from faculty applicants. On Saturday, an MIT spokesperson confirmed in an email to me that “requests for a statement on diversity will no longer be part of applications for any faculty positions at MIT”, adding that the decision was made by embattled MIT President Sally Kornbluth “with the support of the Provost, Chancellor, and all six academic deans”. The decision marks an inflection point in the battle over diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in higher educat ..read more

Some college presidents responded with tough rhetoric, like “the encampment must go.” Others responded with mushy word salad about community and understanding that seemed designed to offer some solace to everyone without actually saying anything. But some of the college presidents who decided that the way out of the dilemma raised by students who refused to leave but couldn’t act to force them ended up negotiating with the protesters. Some, like Northwestern, capitulated to the protesters demands. Lawprof John O. McGinnis explains the problem with capitulation. Northwestern University, where ..read more

In a painful flex, Volokh Conspirator Steven Calabresi makes a bold constitutional argument in defense of Donald Trump in the “hush money” case. Every day breathless articles appear in the New York Times, and through-out the liberal media, about Donald Trump’s allegedly lawless payment of hush money to help out his 2016 presidential campaign. In fact, Donald Trump has a First Amendment right to spend money, as does the Trump Organization, to further his electoral ambitions. In Buckley v. Valeo, the Supreme Court wrongly upheld expenditure limits on how much non-candidates could ..read more

Make sure you sit in the middle of the roller coaster when possible. This avoids the “oh shit” views from the front of the roller coaster and spares you the “whiplash effect” one notices when sitting in the back of the coaster. Expect to wait around 30-45 minutes in line for about a 2-2:30 minute experience. It’s a theme park; what did you expect? Yes, you can buy one of those stupid “Time saver” passes if you want to be a complete douchebag about your trip. Wooden coasters are loud and fast. Metal coasters are quieter but come with the added “benefits” of loops and steeper drops. Assess your ..read more

When I was asked to beta test its AI research bot, I informed a major legal research provider that it worse than sucked. It was dangerous. Not only did it hallucinate, which could be ascertained with minimal fact checking, but it conflated almost all the critical distinctions that make law work. It failed to distinguish between jurisdictions, both states and state and federal, as well as majority, concurrences and dissents. To AI, it was all the same, words about law, all of which melded into one amorphous mass of misbegotten but seemingly accurate “law.” It will improve, I was told. Perhaps ..read more

In anticipation of the police coming to eject their encampment, pro-Palestinian protesters put up barricades. Then, a pro-Israel, wielding bats, pipes and boards, attacked. Just before midnight, a large group, wearing black outfits and white masks, arrived on campus and tried to tear down the barricades surrounding the encampment. Campers, some holding lumber and wearing goggles and helmets, rallied to defend the site’s perimeter. Over several hours, counterdemonstrators hurled objects, including wood and a metal barrier, at the camp and those inside. Fights repeatedly broke out. Some tried t ..read more

After the 2 pm deadline for students to leave the Columbia University encampment passed, not much happened. President Shafik’s negotiations over the previous few days since the ast deadline came to naught. Eventually, Columbia began suspending some students who refused to abide the university’s rules. The alternative to bad is not necessarily good. It can always get worse. –Scott Greenfield You’ll never guess what happened next. Protesters at Columbia University marched across campus and occupied a building early Tuesday, hours after the university had begun suspending students who had refu ..read more

There was a time when an organization was formed for a purpose, usually one that transcended partisanship and stood for a principle. Think ACLU, the one that backed the right of neo-Nazis marching in Skokie despite deploring what they stood for, before it became the ACLU that supported only free speech when it supported the content of the speech. Or think PEN America. PEN America stands at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect free expression in the United States and worldwide. We champion the freedom to write, recognizing the power of the word to transform the world. Our ..read more

There was an infamous line employed by the terminally insipid Nancy Grace, “where there’s smoke, there’s fire.” It was her way of saying that evidence of wrongdoing wasn’t necessary when the smell was bad.  In the New York Times, gender columnist Jessica Bennett does Grace one better. Until Thursday, it seemed that we had entered a new age of accountability, legal and social, not just for Mr. Weinstein but also for the abusers who’d come after him. Even as the #MeToo movement fell short in some ways, the Weinstein case felt like a cultural marker — an Arthur’s sword in the stone moment ..read more