Harvard Plagiarism Archive: What is Senator Sessions' View of Kagan's Whitewash of the Larry Tribe Scandal?

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

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

What is Senator Sessions' View of Kagan's Whitewash of the Larry Tribe Scandal?

Blogger Tom Remington, who we blogged about yesterday, has an interesting update today on his Black Bear Blog, here.

Remington points to the announcement of Senator Jeff Sessions, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, that he and the other Republicans on the Committee are forcing a one-week delay of the Committee vote on her nomination, to insist that she answer questions, set out in his letter, concerning whether she will recuse herself from any cases involving the constitutionality of the recently passed federal health care legislation.

But where, Remington asks, are the questions about Kagan's role as dean of Harvard Law School in whitewashing the ghostwriting/plagiarism scandals involving Larry Tribe and Charles Ogletree -- a role she undertook despite a personal conflict of interest (as a student she'd served as a Tribe ghostwriter and hence had every incentive to sweep the matter under the rug)?

Remington writes:

[T]here is no reference to anything to do with Elena Kagan and her role in covering up ghostwriting and plagiarism at Harvard Law School while she was dean. I know that Sen. Sessions and others on the Judiciary Committee have been made aware of this as I have contacted them asking that they investigate.

We commend Mr. Remington on his efforts to alert Senator Sessions and others on the Committee to Kagan's whitewashing of such matters, and we will do our best to follow up, by contacting members of the Committee to ask whether they have taken the time to review the matters flagged by Mr. Remington, and to report on this blog what their views are.