Tribe admits not crediting author Harvard scholar publicly apologizes

Boston Globe ^ | September 28, 2004 | By Marcella Bombardieri, Globe Staff

[ninonitti]

Laurence H. Tribe, a leading Constitutional scholar and a high-profile lawyer, has become the second Harvard Law School professor this month to acknowledge that he lifted material from another scholar's works.

After a magazine pointed out numerous instances in which his 1985 book "God Save this Honorable Court" echoes an earlier book by another professor, Tribe apologized for an "unacceptable" failure to properly credit the original writer.

Tribe's book borrows liberally from "Justices and Presidents," a 1974 work by Henry J. Abraham, now an emeritus professor at the University of Virginia. One 19-word phrase is exactly the same in both books: "Taft publicly pronounced Pitney to be a 'weak member' of the Court to whom he could 'not assign cases.' "

The similarities were reported Friday night on the Web page of the Weekly Standard, a conservative magazine. Some supporters of Tribe, including Harvard colleague Alan M. Dershowitz, have called the story a partisan attack on a prominent liberal legal scholar. Tribe, who has argued 36 cases before the Supreme Court, recently represented the Democratic Party in its bid to keep Ralph Nader off the Florida ballot, and he also represented presidential candidate Al Gore in his lawsuit over the 2000 election results.

The book itself, which argued that the Senate should play a more aggressive role in selecting Supreme Court Justices, is considered to have provided important backing for the Democrats who prevented Robert Bork from being named to the nation's highest court.

But some also say Tribe's mistakes and those of his colleague Charles J. Ogletree revealed earlier this month are a sign that law schools need to reconsider their standards for attribution and the use of assistants in preparing books for publication.

The matter apparently came to the magazine's attention after Tribe weighed in on the plagiarism

[ninonitti]

Ah the Globe falls back on "The assistants must have done it defense"

And Dershy blames it on "partisans"......how convenieeeeeeent

If Tribe is lifting lines from other authors shouldn't he be out there defending Sandy Berger for lifting documents from the Library of Congress?

[mewzilla]

Tribe's book borrows liberally ...

Well, that's one way to put it I guess.

[ninonitti]

Hehehe, Freudian slip or poor choice of words?

[goldstategop]

He needs to revise his work. Its unacceptable for professors to engage in the kind of conduct they would never tolerate in their students. They after all are role models for the integrity of scholarship in the academic community and before the public at large. Lawrence Tribe's apology is a good first step but should not end there.

[Izzy Dunne]

borrows liberally

"liberal borrowing" = "stealing"

[mewzilla]

Desperate, perhaps? I love how far you have to go in the article before the word plagiarism is actually used.

[mewzilla]

Some apology.

Tribe apologized for an "unacceptable" failure to properly credit the original writer.

Does that mean you're sorry for plagiarizing that other guy's work, Tribe? Or that you're only sorry you got caught?

[ninonitti]

I love this place.

Where else can you still around in your pajamas and pick apart this liberal pap that is churned out by the MSM?

[mewzilla]

And Heaven knows the Boston Globe is always good for a giggle :)

Now if I could only find some humongous bunny slippers...

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Pajama cops
Pajama cops

Whatcha gonna do when they come for you?

[metesky]

"I'm sure his book sold better than mine," Abraham said, adding that "he's a big mahatma and thinks he can get away with this sort of thing."

Bingo! And he'll still try to weasel around it.

[joesnuffy]

After a magazine pointed out numerous instances in which his 1985 book "God Save this Honorable Court" echoes an earlier book by another professor, Tribe apologized for an "unacceptable" failure to properly credit the original writer.

He's sorry alright....sorry he got caught.....

imo

[speedy]

Another victory for The New Media. We're right, we'll fight, and we're in your FACE!!! Tribe joins Rather in detention. Let's find some more.

[lelio]

Over on Newsmax they have another version of the article, with this gem:

Tribe fretted, "My well-meaning effort to write a book accessible to a lay audience through the omission of footnotes or endnotes - in contrast to the practice I have always followed in my scholarly writing...

In other words: ya rubes wouldn't understand a footnote if it hit you in the face, so I saved your last remaining brain cells from trying to figure them out. You should thank me for not putting it out in my scholarly style.