As an alum of Yale law school, I condemn Amy Chua's behavior. As someone who spent a lot of time working (and obviously failing) to change the institution, the law school should also be condemned for enabling, even encouraging abuses like this. for context 1/ https://twitter.com/LeahLitman/status/1380947251489607680

Yale Law School, like many elite law schools and institutions, has a pathological greed for accruing power to itself at any cost, even at the cost of its own students’ safety and wellbeing. After the insurrection in January, I wrote a letter to the professors addressing this. 2/

My letter focused largely on the law school’s institutional support for men like Josh Hawley, but the main thrust of the argument applies. In both cases, the law school acts in a way that protects and preserves its own access to powerful people. 3/

The faculty of Yale Law School are responsible for creating a culture of influence peddling that results in abuses to students, but also harms the legal profession as a whole by further entrenching existing hierarchies of power. 4/

The sexual harassment investigations which led to Jed Rubenfeld’s suspension is an example of harm. But other professors abuse their power too. Ie. By asking research assistants to do chores for them or be at their beck and call at the expense of their academic studies. 5/

These abuses were open secrets and yet the law school refused to act, even to properly investigate and address allegations as serious as sexual harassment until left no choice by student and alumni advocacy efforts. 6/

The law school promotes a culture of silence around abuses by professors because there is a perception that they can make or break legal careers. To the extent that this is true, this is clearly a symptom of deep problems within the profession, beyond the scope of this thread. 7/

The practical result is that professors act like despots. Administrators often told students advocating for changes to policies that they have no ability to “make professors do anything they don’t want to do.” 8/

In this context where professors’ bad behavior cannot be reined in and in which professors are never held accountable for their actions, fears of retaliation from students speaking out are a natural result. 9/

Rubenfeld’s suspension as a result of the investigations into his conduct is the exception that proves the rule. Again, the law school had plenty of opportunities to investigate and act responsibly but did not to preserve its own institutional power. 10/

Even when it finally did investigate, that investigation was nontransparent and the results not communicated in a way that would protect future students. Instead, the entire investigation was managed to protect yale law school’s legitimacy. 11/

In summary, this latest episode should not be understood as a battle between Amy Chua and Yale Law School. Nor is it a case of one professor acting badly. Like most problems, the issues are systemic and the people most harmed are already vulnerable students. 12/