A musing (and a weak defense)

Frank Cross crossf at mail.utexas.edu
Tue Apr 13 07:38:16 PDT 2010 

Perhaps it was a unique moment, I'm not sure.  It was also plausibly 
a unique moment for the President to take on Citizens United in the 
SOU.  That didn't make it racist, being unique.

I don't think Professor Finkelman is trying to shut anyone up.  But I 
do believe that he demonizes those who disagrees with him, assuming 
the worst, rather than trying to understand their interests and motivations.


At 05:33 PM 4/12/2010, Finkelman, Paul <paul.finkelman at albanylaw.edu> wrote:
>All I can reply is that it was a unique moment (as best I can tell) 
>of rudeness by a member of Congress that showed a deep lack of 
>civility and it is indeed my view that Rep. Wilson believed such 
>rudeness was acceptable in part because of the president's 
>race.  But Eugene is right -- I cannot "prove" this.  Eugene's sugestion that
>
>Sent from my HTC smartphone
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Volokh, Eugene <VOLOKH at law.ucla.edu>
>Sent: Monday, April 12, 2010 4:48 PM
>To: 'CONLAWPROFS professors' <CONLAWPROF at lists.ucla.edu>
>Subject: RE: A musing (and a weak defense)
>
>
>         And my view is that people who call others "racist" on 
> evidence such as this are likely just trying to shut up views that 
> they disapprove of, by using "racist" to demonize the opposition 
> and thus to better accomplish their own broader social engineering goals.
>
>         Can I demonstrate that?  No.  Can I read Prof. Finkelman's 
> heart?  No.  But of course neither can Prof. Finkelman read the 
> representative's heart, and yet he seems perfectly happy to label 
> him with what should rightly be out of the most pejorative 
> adjectives in the political vocabulary.  He has his suspicions.  I 
> have mine.  I would have been reluctant to air them, just based on 
> suspicion alone.  But seeing that he has no such reluctance, I 
> don't see why I should have it here.  I want to repeat that I 
> sincerely believe what I said above about Prof. Finkelman 
> specifically, and that I have long believed this about Prof. 
> Finkelman but until now had been reluctant to put quite this 
> baldly.  I would normally have tried to keep names out of this, but 
> right now I want to stress again that I'm speaking specifically to 
> condemn Prof. Finkelman, whose posts I have long found appalling.
>
>         I'll say it again:  Much as I want to see civility, I 
> refuse to allow such bullying and smearing to go unchallenged.  If 
> nothing else, responding to it will let people on the left know 
> that those of us on the right aren't going to be pushed around -- a 
> valuable message for groups, especially groups that are a small 
> minority of a broader group, to convey.
>
>         But I'll also say it again:  I would much prefer to see a 
> truce, in which people turn to topics and to modes of expression 
> that are actually likely to yield scholarly enlightenment to a 
> community of scholars.  I will not unilaterally disarm.  But if all 
> of us can turn to discussions of actual constitutional law, I think 
> the list will be a more useful resource.
>
>         Eugene
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: conlawprof-bounces at lists.ucla.edu [mailto:conlawprof-
> > bounces at lists.ucla.edu] On Behalf Of Finkelman, Paul
> > <paul.finkelman at albanylaw.edu>
> > Sent: Monday, April 12, 2010 1:34 PM
> > To: Frank Cross; Gilbert, Lauren; Robert Sheridan; Nelson Lund
> > Cc: CONLAWPROFS professors
> > Subject: RE: A musing (and a weak defense)
> >
> > No member of Congress as far as I know ever infterrupted a 
> president's speech
> > yelling he was a liar.  My view is that this level of incivility 
> was in part a function
> > of the president being seen as "illegitimate" because he is 
> black.  Just as people
> > argue he is not a citizen despite the evidence.  This is part of 
> the rising racism on
> > the right and within some parts of the republican party.  I would 
> comment on
> > professor lund calling me a racist because of this but I am still 
> laughing because i
> > assume he was joking.
> >
> > Sent from my HTC smartphone
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Frank Cross <crossf at mail.utexas.edu>
> > Sent: Monday, April 12, 2010 2:17 PM
> > To: Gilbert, Lauren <lgilbert at stu.edu>; Robert Sheridan
> > <rs at robertsheridan.com>; Nelson Lund <nlund at gmu.edu>
> > Cc: CONLAWPROFS professors <CONLAWPROF at lists.ucla.edu>
> > Subject: RE: A musing (and a weak defense)
> >
> >
> > While I did not care for Professor Lund's response, I think it was
> > prompted by Professor Finkelman's claim that calling the President a
> > "liar" was racist.  Because President Bush was called a liar,
> > President Clinton was called a liar, President Reagan was called a
> > liar, etc., there is little reason to think that this is necessarily
> > racist.  I think claims of bigotry should be well founded, not 
> casually made.
> >
> > But this all goes to EV's point.  And it seems that this list cannot
> > have a highly reasoned discussion of ideological matters, as it can
> > of constitutional law questions.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Frank B. Cross
> > Herbert D. Kelleher Centennial Professor of Business Law
> > McCombs School of Business
> > University of Texas
> > CBA 5.202 (B6500)
> > Austin, TX 78712-0212
> > 512.471.5250
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > To post, send message to Conlawprof at lists.ucla.edu
> > To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see
> > http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/conlawprof
> >
> > Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be 
> viewed as private.
> > Anyone can subscribe to the list and read messages that are 
> posted; people can
> > read the Web archives; and list members can (rightly or wrongly) 
> forward the
> > messages to others.
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > To post, send message to Conlawprof at lists.ucla.edu
> > To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see
> > http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/conlawprof
> >
> > Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be 
> viewed as private.
> > Anyone can subscribe to the list and read messages that are 
> posted; people can
> > read the Web archives; and list members can (rightly or wrongly) 
> forward the
> > messages to others.
> >
>
>_______________________________________________
>To post, send message to Conlawprof at lists.ucla.edu
>To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see 
>http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/conlawprof
>
>Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed 
>as private.  Anyone can subscribe to the list and read messages that 
>are posted; people can read the Web archives; and list members can 
>(rightly or wrongly) forward the messages to others.
>_______________________________________________
>To post, send message to Conlawprof at lists.ucla.edu
>To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see 
>http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/conlawprof
>
>Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed 
>as private.  Anyone can subscribe to the list and read messages that 
>are posted; people can read the Web archives; and list members can 
>(rightly or wrongly) forward the messages to others.

Frank B. Cross
Herbert D. Kelleher Centennial Professor of Business Law
McCombs School of Business
University of Texas
CBA 5.202 (B6500)
Austin, TX 78712-0212
512.471.5250

More information about the Conlawprof mailing list