Yeah, it's a mystery, those years at Harvard. Plunged into darkness.
First Black Elected to Head Harvard's Law Review
By FOX BUTTERFIELD, Special to The New York Times
Published: February 6, 1990
First Black Elected to Head Harvard s Law Review - NYTimes.com
Selected by affirmative action no less. Where are the articles he published in the Law Review Journal he allegedly edited.
Maybe you could ask these folks:
Robin West, Contributor, Harvard Law Review
Foreword: Taking Freedom Seriously; West, Robin. 104 Harv. L. Rev. 43 (1990-1991)
And when, in an unusual move, he selected a young woman from a non-Ivy League law school to fill one of the Review's most prestigious slots, she produced an essay focused on individual responsibilities as much as on liberties, which criticized both conservative judges and feminist scholars.
"I was very surprised and honored to receive the invitation, of course, as I was teaching at Maryland Law School at the time, and the Forward typically is extended to more established scholars at 'top' law schools," wrote Robin West, now a professor and associate dean at Georgetown Law Center, in an e-mail to Politico. While other articles are selected by the Review's editors as a group, the Forward is solicited by a smaller band led by the Review president.
West worked closely with Obama on her piece, she said, recalling him as gracious and helpful, if a bit polite, even formal: "He would always ask first about my baby," she recalled.
Obama "clearly agreed with me at the time that a shift in constitutional thinking from a rights-based discourse to one that centered [on] responsibility and duties ... would be a good thing," West told Politico. "Partly because of those conversations, I don't find it surprising at all that Sen. Obama's speeches are often marked by calls to spark a sense of responsibility, rather than a sense of grievance."
Federal Judge Michael W. McConnell, Contributor, Harvard Law Review
Article:
The origins and historical understanding of free exercise of religion; McConnell, Michael W. 103 Harv. L. Rev. 1409 (1989-1990)
Once a piece is set, the president also sends a letter or fax and makes a follow-up phone call to each author. Federal Judge Michael W. McConnell, who was nominated by George W. Bush and has frequently been mentioned as one of Bush's potential Supreme Court nominees, recalls receiving one such letter and call in early 1990 for his article "The Origins and Historical Understanding of Free Exercise of Religion."
McConnell told Politico, "A frequent problem with student editors is that they try to turn an article into something they want it to be. It was striking that Obama didn't do that. He tried to make it better from my point of view." McConnell was impressed enough to urge the University of Chicago Law School to seek Obama out as an academic prospect.
Vicki Schultz, Contributor, Harvard Law Review
Telling Stories about Women and Work: Judicial Interpretations of Sex Segregation in the Workplace in Title VII Cases Raising the Lack of Interest Argument; Schultz, Vicki. 103 Harv. L. Rev. 1749 (1989-1990)
Yale professor Vicki Schultz, then an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin law school, wrote a lengthy article for the June 1990 issue titled "Telling Stories About Women and Work" that compared how the courts handled sexual and racial discrimination cases. She was concerned that "some African-American scholars might be offended by the comparison," but says Obama was "incredibly reassuring and smart and nonideological" about the way he approached the piece.
