Inkwell is pleased today to report on an assault on academic freedom that failed.
Students at the University of California’s Boalt Hall School of Law struck out in their attempt oust Professor John Yoo.
Yoo’s “sin”: Writing a memo saying the Geneva Conventions don’t apply to stateless terrorists while Yoo was serving in government.
The students, who circulated a petition, insisted that, since they were asking the prof to go voluntarily, their assault on academic freedom wasn’t an assault on academic freedom.
Which, according to San Fran columnist Debra Saunders, is…
“Bunk: The only reason the petition is not an attack on academic freedom is because it didn’t work — a testament to Boalt Hall’s commitment to the free exchange of ideas, I might add. There are no faculty committees considering pressuring Yoo to resign, noted Acting Dean Robert Berring Jr. Yoo himself has no such plans.”