A quick update on last night's post:
We managed to reach a staffer for one of the Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee who assured us that the Republicans are looking into the indications that Elena Kagan was involved in whitewash of the Larry Tribe ghostwriting scandal and -- of particular concern -- that she involved herself in an investigation of the charges that Tribe used ghostwriters to produce a book on which Tribe took sole credit as author even though Kagan herself was involved in this unethical practice as a student (as set forth in detail in a recent video, here) and thus had a clear conflict of interest in whitewashing the matter, which is exactly what she ended up doing (we credit Dean Lawrence Velvel for the earliest detailed analysis of Kagan's conflict of interest; see here).
We did not press the staffer (who we agreed up front not to name) on what information was being examined, but the staffer seemed familiar with this blog, and with the recent "I'm Larry Tribe" video put together by the Harvard parodists with our help (see here). We hope the Senators or their staffers examining this matter will speak with Dean Velvel and other academics who we have featured on this blog.
We note that the staffer was not especially eager to discuss this matter with us, and did so only after we pointed out that if we weren't given any information on whether or not Kagan's whitewashing of the Larry Tribe ghostwriting scandal was being addressed then we would have to assume -- and report on this blog -- that even after blogger Tom Remington (see below) contacted Senator Sessions' office and the offices of several other Republican Senators on the Judiciary Committee, the Republicans had declined to look into the considerable evidence of wrongdoing by Kagan. We're happy to be able to report otherwise.
News summaries and occasional commentary on the plagiarism charges made against Harvard scholars since 2002. Write us with tips and comments at AuthorSkeptics@Gmail.com
Harvard Plagiarism Archive
"[T]he problem of writers . . . passing off the work of others as their own . . . [is] a phenomenon of some significance."
PROFESSOR LAURENCE TRIBE, e-mail to Dean Lawrence Velvel, 9/13/2004
"'I . . . delegated too much responsibility to others . . .,' [Prof. Charles Ogletree] said. 'I was negligent
in not overseeing more carefully the final product that carries my name.' * * * Ogletree told The Crimson that
he had not read the passage of Balkin’s book that appears in his own work. An assistant inserted the material
into a manuscript . . . . But Ogletree said he was closely involved in most of the drafting of the book . . . ."
STEVEN MARKS, "Ogletree Faces Discipline for Copying Text," The Harvard Crimson, 9/13/2004
"'Ronald Klain . . . then only a first-year student at Harvard law . . . spent most of his time with
Tribe working on Tribe's [1985] book God Save This Honorable Court,'" the Legal Times added in 1993.
* * * 'Many of Klain's friends and former colleagues say that he wrote large sections of the book . . . .'"
JOSEPH BOTTUM, "The Big Mahatma," The Weekly Standard, 10/4/2004
"[A]fter several plagiarism scandals broke over distinguished faculty members at Harvard's law school, including
Laurence Tribe,a group of students there set up a blog, Harvard Plagiarism Archive, to follow the University's
handling of the problem. They believe that the University, President Summers, and Dean Elena Kagan
essentially white-washed the scandal and are demanding further action.
PROF. RALPH LUKER, History News Network's "Cliopatria" blog,4/26/2005
“The Tribe and Ogletree matters have catalyzed bitter complaints from Harvard students that the university
employs a double standard. . . . The students have every right to be incensed over this gross double standard.
They in fact ought to raise hell peacefully about it: a constant barrage of letters, emails, statements . . . .”
DEAN LAWRENCE VELVEL, "Velvel on National Affairs" blog, 4/28/2005
"If you want to keep track of this story, I recommend the new Harvard Plagiarism Archive. . . . [I]t's pretty thorough."
TIMOTHY NOAH, Slate's "Chatterbox" blog,9/28/2004
"[Y]ou have done a wonderful service to all by operating the AuthorSkeptics website . . . a fine public service."
DEAN LAWRENCE VELVEL, author of "Velvel on National Affairs," e-mail to AuthorSkeptics, 4/19/2005
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