Liberal Law Profs on the Turning Point Watchlist

According to Wikipedia, Turning Point USA is a politically conservative 501(c)3 nonprofit organization founded on June 5, 2012 by Wheeling, Illinois high school graduate Charlie Kirk. The organization states its mission is to "identify, educate, train, and organize students to promote fiscal responsibility, free markets and limited government."^[2] It is probably most noted for its Professor Watchlist.^{[3][4][5][6][7]}

The Watchlist lists professors who allegedly “expose and document college professors who discriminate against conservative students and advance leftist propaganda in the classroom.” It has has generated considerable controversy. Many professors, opposing it have asked to be included. The original Watchlist included the names of ten professors involve with legal education. Here is a summary from the ABAJournal:

• University of Pennsylvania law professor Regina Austin, for espousing critical race theory.
• John Jay College of Criminal Justice professor Gloria Browne-Marshall, for saying “Southern white radicals” fought the Obama administration’s health care law.
• Bioethicist Arthur Caplan, accused of comparing Trump’s tactics for gaining support to those used by Hitler.
• Ohio State University law professor Joshua Dressler, for saying that some people believed U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz’s statement about New York values might have been anti-Semitic.
• Georgetown University law professor Gary Peller, forcriticizingthe “unmitigated praise” for Justice Antonin Scalia in a law school press release mourning his death.
• University of California at Berkeley law professor John Powell, accused of saying the Bush administration took money away from protecting levees in New Orleans because the structures were protecting black people.
• Indiana University clinical law professor Fran Quigleyat the Robert H. McKinney School of Law in Indianapolis. Hecriticized the Indiana Republican agenda in an op-ed and wrote that Haiti represents “a tea party fantasyland” with its rock bottom minimum wage, deforestation and virtually nonexistent public safety and government health care.
• George Mason University professor Craig Willse, who opposed renaming the university’s law school after Justice Antonin Scalia.
• University of California at Los Angeles law professor Jonathan Zasloff, accused of stating on social media that Republicans were catering to their KKK core of old, angry, white Southern men with reactionary views on race.

As you can see the justifications for listing these professors are superficial, and the list seems like a very amateurish effort. And just to be clear, I have no use for this sort of blacklisting.

(ljs)