A Harvard Law professor is under investigation by the school for taking a job as part of Harvey Weinstein’s criminal-defense team, allegedly “triggering” some of his students.
Ronald Sullivan’s students have complained that decision to represent Weinstein, who is charged with rape, “puts them at risk,” according to the Wall Street Journal editorial board.
“Harvard puts its commitment to identity politics above the core tenets of due process,” the Journal’s Heather MacDonald wrote.
Sullivan’s choice of client was “deeply trauma-inducing,” and shows that he doesn’t “value the safety of students,” a petition started by a student said. The professor is the dean of one of the undergraduate residential houses.
Since then, unidentified “vandals” have spray painted #MeToo slogans such as “your silence is violence” on Winthrop House, which Sullivan oversees.
The Journal argues that Sullivan’s decision to represent Weinstein could have been a “lesson in the values of Western democracy.” And that Harvard could have explained to students that a lawyer’s decision to take a case doesn’t necessarily mean he believes his client is innocent but, rather, upholds the principles “that all defendants, even guilty ones, have a right to legal representation and that the state may criminally punish someone only after proving his guilt in a rigorously contested adversarial process.”
But instead of taking this more centrist approach, the university “kowtowed to hysterical students,” in the words of the Journal.
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