Law School Profs Lean Left: Study

A new study finds that law school professors are more likely to agree with Sen. Harry Reid than with Rep. John Boehner.

University of California-Berkeley researchers Douglas Spencer and James Phillips analyzed 149 tenure-track hires for political ideology over a non-consecutive three-year period starting in 2005.

The National Law Journal reports their findings:

The researchers could not determine a clear ideological bent for 60 percent of the sample, yet the number of hires who were easily identified as liberal far outpaced those who were very clearly conservative. They determined that 52 of the hires were liberal, compared to 8 who were conservative -- a ratio that "doesn't speak well of intellectual diversity in American law school hiring."

According to Mediate, this study differs from others of its kind because it looked into academic and cultural activities of the professors -- including their Facebook profiles -- rather than just their ethnicity and gender.

A series of editorials on legal blog Above the Law further discusses the importance of this study, conceding that liberal bias is more than evident in law schools and conservative thought is necessary for students to obtain a well-rounded education.

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