Black Bear Blog on Senators' Neglect of Harvard Plagiarism Story: "Shame on the Senate"!

Tom Remington of the Black Bear Blog made a cogent post this morning noting the importance of the Harvard plagiarism scandals to the Senate's task of deciding whether Elena Kagan is fit to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court (we appreciate his link to our blog).  You can read it in full here. 

Mr. Remington, an avid hunter and the managing editor of U.S. Hunting Today, has previously opposed the Kagan nomination, mostly based on concerns about how faithfully she would adhere to the Second Amendment right to bear arms.  In this post, Remington expresses his concern about the Senate's lack of interest in Kagan's handling of the ghostwriting/plagiarism scandals at Harvard.  An excerpt:

Like with any Supreme Court nominee, there is more to the person than simply how they stand on Second Amendment. Isn’t it just as important to know about a person’s character, maybe even to know whether they find little problem with lying, cheating and stealing?

A reader tipped me off the other day to events that have been taking place for some time at Harvard Law School, especially during the time that Elena Kagan was the Dean. It appears there is nothing short of an epidemic (at least by using Barack Obama’s standards for what entails an epidemic) of plagiarism by some of Harvard Law’s well-known associates – Alan Dershowitz, Charles Ogletree and Laurence Tribe. The history is long and sordid dating back several years.   You can find much information about this from the links given to me by a reader who claims to have been following this story for several years and puzzles over why nobody is talking about this during the Kagan hearings. The Harvard Plagiarism Archive is a good place to start and the below video I’ve posted can be found at the Harvard Parody.

Personally I have little, if anything, at stake if Harvard Law School wants to pump out liars, cheaters and stealers.  . . .  However, all Americans have a stake in this because as Dean of Harvard Law School, according to documents provided [at the Harvard Plagiarism Archive], Elena Kagan was aware of copying and pasting of other scholars’ work into books and other documents claimed by Dershowitz, Ogletree and Tribe and essentially did nothing about it. Even more troubling is that Kagan, as Dean, investigated accusations against Laurence Tribe about his using students to ghostwrite and plagiarizing for his book and other works. A real conflict of interest exists here in that Kagan used to ghostwrite for Tribe.

Plagiarism is a serious offense. Caught in the act, a student will be bounced out on their ear but evidently it is an acceptable practice at Harvard Law School for professors and staff; at least under Kagan’s watch. The ramifications of stealing another person’s scholarship goes far beyond the obvious dishonesty and threatens the very foundation of academic scholarship, much as Climategate has rattled and cracked the scientific world leaving millions not knowing who to believe or trust.

. . .  Why isn’t this being discussed during the Kagan nomination process? This knowledge challenges the very core of a person’s character; the very ethos no American should desire to see of a person sitting on the highest court in this land.

Surely members of the Senate must be aware of this . . . aren’t they? Do they want to know? How deeply tied are these Senators to Dershowitz, Ogletree and Tribe? Is this all just Washington “business as usual/politics as usual”?

For Elena Kagan, as dean of any college, to show such disregard for obvious plagiarism is an abomination but to take it upon herself to investigate the person she used to ghostwrite for, simply reeks of dishonesty and a cover-up or better yet a good, old-fashioned Washington, D.C. whitewash.

* * *

Shame on the Senate for not getting to the bottom of this in their vetting process. If you think this information is important in selecting a Justice to sit on the Supreme Court, pass it on to everyone you know and most importantly, send it to your Senator.

Elena Kagan's "Runaround Suit"

The Harvard Parody bloggers have been busy.  Yesterday they posted a new video, called Elena Kagan's "Runaround Suit."  It contains highly entertaining video from the March, 2009, annual Harvard Law School parody show, which portrayed Justice John Paul Stevens as a decrepit old man who'd lost his marbles.  That video is matched with video of Kagan professing her great respect for Justice Stevens during her confirmation hearing a couple of weeks ago.  

The video also portrays Dean Kagan putting on a superhero cape, and announcing:

"But now I'm going to D.C.; I'm going to help fix the country the way I fixed the Law School!"

Given how Dean Kagan "fixed" the ghostwriting/plagiarism scandals of Professors Dershowitz, Ogletree, and Tribe by meting out no punishment of any kind to any of them even though each was caught red-handed having students write books for them (because, as it happened, the students had plagiarized material from other books), we must admit to some concern about the future of the country, or at least of the Supreme Court!




[7/15 UPDATE: In case you have difficulty viewing the Harvard Parody videos, either as embedded on this blog or at HarvardParody.wordpress.com, the videos are also posted on YouTube on the Harvard Parody channel, here: http://www.youtube.com/user/harvardparody]

Update on National Review article and Harvard Parody project

A week ago we reported on the June 28 National Review article by Robert VerBruggen (article here) revealing important new evidence supporting what we have long contended:  that Professor Laurence Tribe has for years run a ghostwriting mill in which his books and articles (including his career-making constitutional law treatise) are drafted for him by his current and former students, with Tribe serving mostly as a compiler of material written by others, not as an actual "author" of the works bearing his name.

One of our most important posts on this point, dated Feb. 2, 2006, discussed an essay by Dean Lawrence Velvel touching on our "ghostwriting mill" description of Tribe's method of producing books. See here.  In particular, we quoted Dean Velvel's comment that a law professor he knows had recently told him that while a student at Harvard Law School he had been asked "to work on American Constitutional Law" and "he knew several people who had done so.  . . .  The people who had worked for Tribe, said this professor, had written large tracts of Tribe's treatise."

As we mentioned last week, we first learned of the National Review article from one of the Harvard Parody bloggers.  They ended up doing a lengthy video (which we provided significant help with), explaining in detail the Larry Tribe ghostwriting/plagiarism scandal which Dean Elena Kagan was instrumental in whitewashing, entitled:  "I'm Larry Tribe":  The Story Behind the Parody. The end of the video includes highly entertaining audio, photos, and lyrics of the 2005 live performance of the "I'm Larry Tribe" parody skit.  (If you want to watch only the skit, it's available as a discrete clip on YouTube, here.)

The full video is posted at the new Harvard Parody site on WordPress.com (which apparently has video hosting capabilities not available on the old Harvard Parody platform). [7/12 update: a reader suggested we embed the video; here it is]



[7/15 UPDATE: In case you have difficulty viewing the Harvard Parody videos, either as embedded on this blog or at HarvardParody.wordpress.com, the videos are also posted on YouTube on the Harvard Parody channel, here: http://www.youtube.com/user/harvardparody]

One final point.  In response to our post of last week, "R.O. Denver" e-mailed us about the new evidence of plagiarism by Tribe discussed in the National Review article, of which he had quite detailed knowledge.  Denver was the law professor who tipped off the Harvard Crimson to new evidence of plagiarism by Charles Ogletree in 2006.  See here.  Denver immediately supplied us with very helpful background information (particularly on the research assistant singled out by Tribe) which we used in helping put together the video.  Denver recently informed us that he plans to launch a website (similar to the one he created on the new evidence of Ogletree's plagiarism, see here) setting forth that background information and fully documenting the new evidence of plagiarism by Tribe, complete with images of the relevant pages of Tribe's treatise and of the sources which were copied into Tribe's treatise.  We greatly appreciate his assistance, which will minimize our burden in keeping this blog up to date. We will post a link to his website once it is available.

On Elena Kagan Covering for Alan Dershowitz

Blogger Tony Greenstein has an interesting post on Elena Kagan's effort as dean of Harvard Law School to cover for Alan Dershowitz's plagiarism (a subject which we've given little attention, focusing more on her efforts to cover for Laurence Tribe and Charles Ogletree).

You can read it here.

For an excellent primer on the Dershowitz affair, we recommend Harvard Clown School.  (For our discussion of that blog, see here).

Elena Kagan, Medical Ghostwriter?

We note with some amusement that after drawing enormous flak from Dean Lawrence Velvel for her apparent role in the 1980s as a legal ghostwriter for Laurence Tribe (see here), Elena Kagan faced tough questioning in her confirmation hearings over the possibility that in the 1990s she served as a medical ghostwriter on a sensitive political matter involving abortion.  Here.  It's a shame no one (apparently) asked Dean Kagan about her legal ghostwriting work.

Last month Professor David Bernstein noted Kagan's ghostwriting work for law professors (hardly the first such work, it appears!) during the Whitewater affair, in a Volokh Conspiracy post here.  Some of the commentators are quite critical of Kagan.

National Review Article on Professor Tribe

A few days ago the National Review published an article on new evidence of the use of ghostwriters, and/or the commission of plagiarism, by Professor Laurence Tribe.  The article is "Pearls Richer Than Tribe," written by Robert VerBruggen.  You can read it online here (apparently it's not in the print edition).

Despite our interest in the subject matter, we did not know about it until today, when a Harvard Parody blogger (we discussed that blog here) called it to our attention.  Based on a quick Google search, it appears the article has received little attention.  Mr. VerBruggen's article mentioned both the Harvard Parody blog and our blog (which we certainly appreciate).  The Harvard parodists tentatively plan to do another post or set of posts in an effort to renew interest in their efforts, and in the Harvard plagiarism scandals, and have asked us for our input, which we will try to provide if our schedules permit.

Update (7/2013) -- Above link to article is broken.  Here is a summary of the article (link to article there is broken, too).   Apparently some of the urls on the National Review website have been changed, but not all cross-references have been updated.  The new url for the article is here.

Dean Lawrence Velvel on Kagan's Nomination to the Supreme Court

Former Harvard law school dean Elena Kagan (now Solicitor General), a central figure in this blog, has now been nominated for a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court.  Dean Lawrence Velvel, another central figure in this blog, is not exactly backing her nomination (which should come as no surprise to readers).  See here.

Earlier, Evan Gahr of Jewish World Review discussed Kagan's role in whitewashing the Harvard Law School ghostwriting/plagiarism scandals involving Laurence Tribe and Charles Ogletree, here.

It's also discussed by blogger Robert Stacy McCain (The Other McCain) here.

Harvard Crimson story on plagiarism

The Harvard Crimson recently revisited the subject here.

"Harvard Clown School" blog

Last week "Dunc Hunter" (we presume a pseudonym) published a new blog entitled "Harvard Clown School."  It decries what certainly seems to be a recent decline in scholarly standards at the (formerly?) prestigious Harvard Law Review.  It artfully (in our view) links that decline to the earlier toleration, by Dean Elena Kagan and others, of professors' use of student ghostwriters, even when those ghostwriters turn out to have plagiarized from legitimate scholars.

We recommend it highly, but we must point out that the blog consists largely of links to stories about Harvard plagiarism which we initially collected and publicized on our blog -- yet "Dunc Hunter" doesn't see fit to mention our blog even once!  We leave it to our readers to decide whether he's plagiarized our blog about Harvard Plagiarism.

We must give "Dunc Hunter" credit for one thing:  he has boiled down the basic story about the Harvard plagiarism/ghostwriting scandals, and the key sources, much more concisely than we have ever done -- particularly with regard to the Dershowitz affair.  Therefore the "Harvard Clown School" blog serves as a good starting point for readers new to this subject.  We will follow with interest any further posts on the blog.

IPBiz on Harvard Plagiarism

Lawrence B. Ebert at the IPBiz blog has posted recently on the continuing Harvard plagiarism problem, here and here.

Harvard Medical School plagiarism scandal

Accusations of plagiarism have been leveled against Lee S. Simon, a professor at Harvard Medical School.  Harvard Crimson article here.

Dean Vevel on Harvard's Ghostwriting Problem

Dean Velvel just will not stay away from the Harvard ghostwriting story!  For that, we are grateful.  We recommend his excellent post of last week, which you can read here.

Former Tribe Assistant Comments on Ghostwriting Charges

Former Tribe research assistant Michael Dorf (now a law professor) comments on the ghostwriting charges against Tribe and other Harvard figures, here.

Dorf states that"I did not ghost-write anything substantial for Larry's academic projects when I worked as his research assistant.

Two questions readily come to mind:

1.  Dorf is not precise.  What does he mean by "substantial"?  If he drafted 50 pages of a 1000-page book for Tribe, presumably that might not count as "substantial," yet many would regard the absolute volume of writing as involving an unethical amount of delegation of authorial work (absent full disclosure of the delegation).

2.  Are any other Tribe research assistants able to make Dorf's statement?

Blogger on Tribe's Self Parody

The "Self-Absorbed Boomer" blog has some humorous comments about the Harvard Parody treatment of Professor Tribe (which we blogged about here, here, here, and here) and about Tribe's own self parody on his website (which we blogged about here).

Dershowitz's Attack on Finklestein

The Harvard Crimson has had some solid recent coverage of Alan Dershowitz's attacks on Norman Finklestein (who accused him of plagiarism back in 2003), which contributed to Finklestein being denied tenure at DePaul University, here, here and here.

Dean Velvel on Judge Posner on Plagiarism

We strongly recommend this wonderful, long post by Dean Velvel of last week, in which touches on the Harvard plagiarists by noting how little they really suffered on account of the scandals.

Dean Velvel on Dean Kagan

Recently Dean Velvel posted some very negative remarks about Dean Elena Kagan.  Here.

More Plagiarism By Charles Ogletree

The Harvard Crimson recently published an open-and-shut case of Professor Ogletree committing yet more plagiarism in the 2004 book which was apparently ghostwritten for him (at least in part) by students.  Four sentences were lifted, with only minor wording changes, from a 1996 book by University of California professor Roy Brooks.  Story here.  New York Times followup story here.

Not entirely coincidentally, shortly after the Crimson story appeared, a website sprung up fully documenting all the details, including copies of the relevant pages of each book.  It's authored by one "R.O. Denver."  Here. Given the website, we see no need to offer our independent discussion.

Disclosure:  "R.O. Denver" is a pseudonym for a law professor with whom we've corresponded in the past year, and we knew about the tip to the Crimson in advance (indeed, we suggested that Denver contact either the Boston Globe or the Crimson, given their past interest in Harvard plagiarism stories).  For professional reasons the professor must remain anonymous, but the professor has authorized us to state that he or she teaches at a law school somewhere east of the Mississippi and is generally viewed as a political "conservative" (at least by heavily liberal law faculty standards), though that orientation had no role in the professor's decision to provide the tip (according to the professor).

New Harvard Crimson Story

Yesterday's Harvard Crimson has an informative reprise of the Harvard plagiarism/ghostwriting stories.  Here.

Dean Velvel on Dean Kagan

Recently Dean Velvel posted some comments (in the context of e-mails with Harvard professor Howard Gardner) on Harvard president Lawrence Summers leaving -- and on the prospect that Dean Elena Kagan might take his place!  Here.

Confirmation That Tribe's Assistants Wrote "Large Tracts" of His Treatise

Last week Dean Velvel had a long post, of excellent quality as usual, discussing the problem of ghostwriting and addressing yet again the Tribe/Kagan affair as it relates to the "ghost in the room."  You can read it here.

Of particular interest is Velvel's report that he's starting to think we may well be correct in our assertions (in part based on constant talk at the law school) that for years Tribe has been running a ghostwriting operation in which his students or former students draft most of his books and articles:

"I spoke with a professor who told me, fortuitously, that Tribe had asked him to work on American Constitutional Law when he was a student at Harvard Law School, and he knew several people who had done so. (Working for Tribe was, he said, as one would think, a plum job that would lead to recommendations for prestigious judicial clerkships, that would lead to other prestigious jobs, etc.) The people who had worked for Tribe, said this professor, had written large tracts of Tribe’s treatise."

Also, Dean Velvel discusses in the most detail ever the reasons for thinking that Dean Elena Kagan had a conflict of interest when she decided to involve herself in the investigation of the ghostwriting and plagiarism charges against Professor Tribe in connection with his 1985 book God Save This Honorable Court.  The gist of it:

So . . . . it begins to look, does it not, as if the Dean of Harvard Law School, one of the two persons (President Summers being the other) who should have but apparently did not punish Tribe, was one of the participants in what some people think was "in effect a ghostwriting mill" that Tribe ran to prepare the treatise which is one of the main components of his fame. If all this is so, there was no way in hell, was there, that Kagan could have punished him for having had one or more persons ghostwrite (very large?) portions of his book on confirmation of Justices? (It is claimed by some that the book was in effect written for him by a student, and now Democrat politician, named Ron Klain.) I mean, if all this stuff about Tribe running a ghostwriting mill is true, then Kagan was a participant in the ghostwriting machine by which Tribe wrote his treatise (and for all I know may have gotten various jobs partly because of his recommendation(s)). How could a participant in his ghostwriting mill punish him for it?

Oh yes, one could say that Kagan was in a different position than Tribe back in the ’80s. She was a student. She was no doubt eager to win Tribe’s plaudits and approval and get recognition and recommendations from him and to get prominently published thanks from him in his book. One might almost sympathize with her if one didn’t suspect for various reasons that she likely is one of those east coast types, one of those Harvard/Yale types, like the Clintons, for whom she worked, who would run over their grandmothers to get ahead. Regardless, however, how could Kagan punish Tribe for conduct she had participated in? ’Tain’t likely, Jeb.

Recent blog post on Professor Tribe

The blog "StoneHeads," of which we confess we know nothing, has a discussion of the Tribe ghostwriting/plagiarism affair, here.

More Harvard Parody Posts

Several more parody songs have been posted on the Harvard Parody blog (we discussed the initial appearance of that blog here).  They're entertaining and, in our view, quite accurate concerning the substance.  We thank "Frumpy Clown" for his e-mail alerting us to the update, and we look forward to seeing future the Harvard parodists' future efforts.