TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Brittany Sims on Jul 15, 2015

Justice Antonin Scalia’s nasty barbs are a bad influence on law students, according to an op-ed by University of California at Irvine law dean Erwin Chemerinsky. Writing in the Los Angeles Times, Chemerinsky says he has always taught students in debate and law that nastiness is a crutch for those who can’t win using reason or legal precedent. “But lately my students have been turning in legal briefs laced with derision and ad hominem barbs,” he writes. “For this trend, I largely blame Scalia. My students read his work, find it amusing and imitate his truculent style.” The ABA Journal has more.