A recent article in The Atlantic contained a notable account of the final meeting of the Spring 2024 semester for Harvard’s college faculty. As part of his annual report, then-Dean of Harvard College Rakesh Khurana could not keep a straight face when reporting that the average grade at the school was now 3.8. As Khurana chuckled at the lunacy of an average of an A, the rest of the faculty joined in the laughter. It appears that, after years of runaway grade inflation, Harvard’s grading system has become a bad joke even among its own faculty. Continue reading ““Harvard’s Faculty Burst Out Laughing”: How Harvard’s Grade Inflation Became a Bad Joke”
Author: jonathanturley
Below is my column in The Hill on the spate of lawsuits against OpenAI over injuries associated with ChatGPT. These lawsuits could offer a long-needed review of OpenAI and its corporate practices. What is most needed is congressional action to examine not only the dominance of these AI systems but also the conduct of corporations like OpenAI.
Here is the column:
The Chicago Public School system has long been in a state of decline, with poor student scores and massive budget deficits. Teacher pensions in Chicago have threatened to bankrupt the state after politicians yielded to demands from the powerful teachers’ union. Despite the budget crisis, however, school administrators are burning through money on woke programs and resulting litigation. The latest example is the over $2.6 million in damages that will be paid to students who were forced to participate in a Transcendental Meditation program during classes. Teachers ignored the religious objections to the Hindu-based program, and the school subsequently litigated the case, incurring even greater costs to the system. Continue reading “Mantras and Money: Chicago Schools Agree to Pay $2.6 Million Over Transcendental Meditation Sessions”
This week, Elizabeth Baxter, an intern with the department’s environmental division, became the second Justice Department employee to be fired by Attorney General Pam Bondi for abusive conduct toward federal officers. Baxter shouted profanities and flipped off a member of the National Guard in Washington, D.C., on her way to work. The termination raises legitimate free speech issues, but Baxter may have crossed the line by recounting the abuse at work. Continue reading “Second DOJ Employee Fired Over Abusive Treatment of Federal Officers”
Within minutes of the shooting at a Minneapolis Catholic Church Mass on Wednesday, politicians and pundits were calling for new gun control measures and blaming conservatives for the deaths of the children. These are the same calls that have emerged after past shootings for everything from a ban on “assault weapons” to a total ban on all guns. What the public is not being told is the limited range of options under existing constitutional precedent.
Continue reading “The Rhetoric and Realities of Gun Control”
In 1985, Sol Wachtler, the chief justice of New York’s Supreme Court, famously said, “Any good prosecutor can get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich.” Perhaps, but it appears that indicting someone for throwing a ham sandwich may be tougher than it would appear. A grand jury has reportedly refused to indict Sean Charles Dunn, 37, shown on video shouting obscenities at Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents standing near 14th and U streets on Aug. 10. and then striking an officer with a wrapped sandwich. Continue reading “Grand Jury Refuses to Indict Sandwich-Throwing Former Justice Employee”
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) appears to be doubling down on crazy in Minneapolis this week with calls to pack the Supreme Court and other extremist priorities. For voters who have repeatedly shown that they want to move to a more moderate center, you are left like Jack Nicholson in As Good As It Gets when his character, Melvin Udall, who declared, “Sell crazy someplace else. We’re all stocked up here.” Continue reading “As Good As It Gets? DNC Moves to Sell Crazy to an Over-Stocked Nation”
We have previously discussed the lack of a credible defense for Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan, who has been charged with facilitating the escape of an undocumented man being sought by federal officers in her courthouse. Indeed, despite having high-powered lawyers such as Paul Clement, her recent social media posts seem more like a pitch for jury nullification. One bright spot for Dugan was that she was assigned to U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman, a liberal Democrat who has run for prior office and has been accused of bias on the bench. However, Judge Adelman just delivered a blow to the defense by rejecting Dugan’s claim that she had judicial immunity in taking her actions.
In the advertising world, there is an old adage that there are times when you take a pitch and “run it up the flagpole and see who salutes.” That expression came to mind yesterday when President Donald Trump signed an order to punish flag burning. The President may be hoping that the Supreme Court might salute and reverse long-standing precedent declaring flag burning to be protected speech under the First Amendment. If so, he is likely to be disappointed. The proposed prosecutions would be unconstitutional and, absent an unlikely major reversal of prior precedent by the Court, flag burning will remain a protected form of free speech. Continue reading “Running it up the Flagpole: Why the Trump Order on Flag Burning is Unconstitutional”
Axios has a story out this week that disclosed that the Democratic National Committee (DNC) continued to pay off the debts from former Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign. Over $15 million has already been paid out by the DNC, which is reportedly struggling to raise money in the aftermath of a failed campaign. Axios described it as a “private agreement” that was not disclosed to donors, who unknowingly contributed to the Harris campaign rather than the campaigns to retake the House and Senate. The question is whether such private agreements are lawful if not disclosed to donors. Harris shocked many in burning through over $1.5 billion in her brief 15-week campaign. Donors were irate over wasteful and excessive spending by Harris and her campaign. That has contributed to the poor fundraising figures reported from the DNC.
We previously discussed the arrest of former Washington State University teaching assistant Patrick Mahoney and WSU research assistant Gerald Hoff for beating down engineering student Jay Sani for wearing a Trump hat. Notably, after the attack, Mahoney explained that, if you choose to wear a pro-Trump hat, “there’s gonna be a price to pay.” There is also a price for a beat down. He was just sentenced to one week in prison and a year’s probation. Continue reading ““There’s Gonna be a Price to Pay”: Former WSU Teaching Assistant Sentenced for Attack on Conservative Student” 
Below is my column in The Hill on the chilling jurisprudence of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. Jackson’s description of opinions as an opportunity for commentary on contemporary issues is a radical departure from long-standing traditions on the Court. While justices have occasionally strayed into extraneous issues, Jackson appears to view her position as giving her a license to vent, including questioning the principles and integrity of her colleagues.
Here is the column:
Continue reading “The Judicial Calvinball of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson”
For years, we have discussed (e.g., here, here, here, here, here) the crackdown on free speech in Canada, which followed European allies in criminalizing and regulating religious and political speech. The latest example involves Canadian nurse Amy Hamm, who had the temerity of putting up a billboard reading “I (heart) J.K. Rowling.” Despite recent changes in various countries regarding transgender athletes and other policy changes long advocated by Rowling, she remains persona non grata on the left — subjected to liberal blacklisting, book burning, threatened prosecution, cancel campaigns, and boycotts. The British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal targeted Hamm. These tribunals have long operated as speech regulators, prosecuting those with opposing viewpoints or values. Continue reading “Oh Canada: Nurse Fights Anti-Free Speech Tribunal Over Transgender Views”
Below is my column in the New York Post on the appellate court decision to toss the entirety of the fine imposed against President Donald Trump in the civil action brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James.
Here is the column:
Continue reading “The One That Got Away: Letitia James and the Perils of Trophy Fishing”
Below is my column in Fox.com on the New York opinion tossing out the grotesque half-billion-dollar fine imposed by Judge Arthur Engoron. Despite the support of many lawyers and pundits, Engoron could not get a single judge to agree with him on the fine.
Here is the column:
Continue reading “Engoron’s Half-Billion-Dollar Miscalculation: Court Tosses Trump Fine”