Kagan, Obama, and the Harvard Legacy of Literary Fraud

American Thinker ^ | May 13, 2010 | Jack Cashill

[neverdem]

When Barack Obama’s two faculty mentors at Harvard Law got in trouble for plagiarism, they were rescued by Dean Elena Kagan.

In 1989, Harvard Law professor Laurence Tribe hired first-year Harvard law student Barack Obama as his research assistant.  After Obama was elected president, Tribe would gush, "His stunning combination of analytical brilliance and personal charisma, openness and maturity, vision and pragmatism, was unmistakable from my very first encounter."

Obama had one other prominent mentor among the Harvard faculty, Professor Charles Ogletree, an African American.  In the run-up to the election, Ogletree would enthuse, "I'm so excited about this candidacy that I just can't tell you. I'm just overfull with joy."

In 2004, Tribe and Ogletree both made the news in ways they might wish they had not. And now in 2010, that news has come back to haunt their Law School dean at that time, Elana Kagan, and, if there is any justice in the world, it should eventually suck in Obama himself.

In September 2004, as Obama was cruising to victory in his U.S. Senate race, Tribe was publicly apologizing for plagiarizing -- though, of course, he would not use that term -- Henry J. Abraham's 1974 book, Justices and Presidents, to write his own 1985 book, God Save This Honorable Court.

Tribe's transgression had come to light only after he had publicly defended his colleague Ogletree, who just three weeks earlier had publicly apologized for the unauthorized heist of verbiage from Yale scholar Jack Balkin's book, What Brown v. Board of Education Should Have Said, and the stashing of it, nearly word-for-word, in his own book, All Deliberate Speed. 

Appalled by Tribe's hypocrisy, an anonymous tipster alerted conservative scholar Joseph Bottum, who penned a damning 5,000 word article for The Weekly Standard, which revealed the extent of Tribe's theft and resulted in Tribe's half-hearted mea culpa.

In reviewing the case, Kagan and then Harvard President Larry Summers faced an obvious challenge: Ogletree was a black star on a faculty often criticized for being overly white; even more problematic, Tribe was the superstar of the judicial left.

Had they been a couple of untenured white guys, Summers and Kagan would have promptly ground them into hamburger, but these two were sacred cows.  So they duly appointed a three-person committee of Harvard insiders, headed by former and future (replacing Summers after his resignation) Harvard president Derek Bok. After several months of reluctant inquiry, Summers and Kagan chose not to see the obvious and let the miscreants go essentially unpunished. 

Given the politics of Ogletree and Tribe, the media had no interest in pursuing the case or pointing out the injustice of their non-punishment.

Kudos here to the one person who did pursue the case, Lawrence Velvel, dean of the University of Massachusetts Law School, an honest liberal who knew academic legerdemain when he saw it.  In April 2005, Velvel posted a nearly 10,000-word analysis on his blog that not only explores the extent of the fraud and the depth of Kagan's complicity, but that also suggests -- without intending to -- the inspiration for Obama's own chicanery.

In the way of background, in 2004, after Ogletree's sins had become public knowledge, Velvel had criticized him on line, and Tribe had come to Ogletrees's defense.  Tribe conceded that the problem of prominent people, "office seekers" among them, "passing off the work of others as their own" had become "a phenomenon of some significance."  In the next sentence, however, Tribe chastised Velvel for going public on issues "about which your knowledge is necessarily limited."

Velvel responded to Tribe that if decency prevented outsiders from challenging a story already in the public sphere, "wouldn't we have to depend for criticisms on those who are closest to the situation, who have the most reason not to discuss it lest they or their institution be harmed, and who are least likely to publicly discuss or criticize?"

Comparably, my understanding that Bill Ayers helped Obama write Dreams From My Father is "limited," but how could it not be? In my own challenge of Obama's authorship, I have faced the same response Velvel got from Tribe and responded much as Velvel did: "What do you expect Obama's editor and publisher to say, let alone Obama himself?"

Velvel's fears were fully grounded.  Summers and Kagan let months pass before even announcing that they had appointed a committee composed of Bok and two other Harvard honchos.  In April 2005, the committee reported its findings to the pair, although the report itself, if even written, was not released.

Not surprisingly, Summers and Kagan concluded of Tribe's transgression that it had happened twenty years earlier, that it was the "product of inadvertence," and they now "consider the matter closed." Writes Velvel of their conclusion, "it is a travesty. Its language is misleading, its logic miserable, and its spirit corrupt."

What troubled Velvel most is this: Ogletree and Tribe could claim "inadvertence" because they both almost assuredly allowed their research assistants to write major stretches of the book for them. Writes Velvel, "Ghostwriting, horribly enough, has become all too prevalent in academia as a general matter." 

The fact that Ogletree used ghostwriters, says Velvel, is "widely accepted." The case against Tribe is nearly as strong.  The instances of "copycatting," including one identical 19-word pilfering, "seem to be more like what one would expect of a student than of a Tribe."  What is more, as Velvel points out, a 1993 article in a Washington law newspaper, called Legal Times, addressed the claim of a former Tribe assistant, Ron Klain, that he had written large sections of Tribe's God Save This Honorable Court.

"That Harvard is setting a very bad example, with all too much of the bad stuff centered in its law school, is all too evident," writes Velvel.  One unfortunate consequence of this phenomenon is that the young are watching and learning from the masters. Here is how Velvel imagines their thought process might go.

On balance, it is well worth it, for on the one side lies fame and fortune, and on the other lies only a slap on the wrist. And, especially if I can hide my misdeeds for years (as seems usually to occur), and in the meanwhile have become a big deal, I am virtually assured of suffering nothing other than a minor slap on the wrist if and when I am finally caught.

Did Obama take his cue from Tribe and/or Ogletree.  When pressed by his contractual demands, and unable to finish his book, did one or the other of his academic mentors whisper in his ear, "Have someone else write it.  We do this all the time."  If so, his appointment of Kagan makes sense.  She has a history of whitewashing the sins of those more powerful than she.

Velvel wanted to see Kagan fired.  "So, in my view, Kagan too should go," he writes.  The result of her complicity with a corrupt faculty leads Velvel to an inescapable conclusion:

Since it is now known that Harvard professors have plagiarized, copycatted, and pretty certainly have had stuff ghostwritten for them, the bona fides and reputations of nearly everyone at Harvard is called into question, especially people in the law school.

I could not agree more.

Jack Cashill's latest book is Popes and Bankers.

[Surtur]

Plagiarism is only a fault in some people. These folks got off on the MLK defense. Happens all the time for the “right” people. You or me? We would be crucified and ostracized from polite society.

[Art in Idaho]

Harverd no longer gives grades to students in the Law School. It is pass/fail. Wonder if it had anything to do with that.

Yet another thing to change after Revolution II. Get rid of pass/fail, number grades, "everyone gets a trophy" and replace with the old A-B-C-D-F and healthy competition. .

[Menehune56]

One thing I'd like to recommend is that any Freepers who haven't done so, contact both your senators and urge them to vote NO on this dreadful woman. It can't hurt. http://www.senate.gov/

[stephenjohnbanker]

” “His stunning combination of analytical brilliance “

Stop right there......Obama has, at best, average intelligence.

[GeronL]

I agree.

[sthguard]

Hey now— analytical brilliance is “just really hard”! ;-)

[Canedawg]

The book is a 400 page hornbook with extensive citations to Supreme Court cases. I doubt someone else would allow him to take the credit for such a treatise if he didnt write it.

And the few interviews i have seen of him confirm his extensive knowledge of constitutional law. The good thing about the book is that it isn’t a leftist treatise as much as it is a legal analysis of case law.

[stephenjohnbanker]

“Hey now— analytical brilliance is “just really hard”! ;-) “

Twin teleprompters trump a high I.Q. every time ;-)

[day21221]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWV6YTrWthE&feature=player_embedded#!
Elena Kagan in 2005: Barack Obama is my hero

[Tulsa Ramjet]

http://en.tackfilm.se/?id=1273769563091RA58

pretty funny. surprised the communication office hadn’t put this out.

[Tulsa Ramjet]

takes about a minute and half to load.

[freespirited]

It’s the same way at some of the medical schools.

I also have heard that some schools dont give fail. It’s pass or incomplete. I don’t think anyone can deny that this is an affirmative-action related policy, something that becomes a necessity when you admit individuals whose credentials predict they are not up to the rigors of the institution.

[goodnesswins]

Oh, great...just what I’d want....a surgeon who got a “Pass” in all his/her classes in med school (that really were C- or D’s)....how comforting...

[IHateLeftists]

Haha, I am from there! I groaned audibly when ESPN showed him filling out his bracket and he misspelled it. And he won my county too. So pathetic. I’ll admit I was brainwashed by him and just pulled the lever kind of instinctively, knowing it wouldn’t make a difference in NY. Now I’m revolted that I did. The Republicans were right when they said that he was anti-Israel and really detested white people and sought to divide America. They were right about all of it. :(

[ROTB]

>Now I’m revolted that I did.

Don’t feel too bad for too long. Regret, make amends, and move on.

Dig down for what you missed, so you don’t make the same mistake. For instance, I don’t believe any more that a “REpublican” will keep taxes low, or seal the border.

Have a great day.

[IHateLeftists]

Thank you. I was always somewhat libertarian/conservative in my outlook. I did vote Republican for my new congresscritter in that same election and he fortunately beat out his Democratic opponent to keep the seat in Republican hands.

You have a great day as well.

[who_would_fardels_bear]

Sadly, Kagan's comments with regard to Socialism seem equally appropriate of the conservative movement as evidenced by all the internal dissent on FR ...

"Through its own internal feuding, then, the CM [Conservative Movement] exhausted itself forever and further reduced constitutionalism in the US to the position of marginality and insignificance from which it has never recovered. The story is a sad but also a chastening one for those who, more than half a century after conservatism's decline, still wish to change America. Conservatives have often succumbed to the devastating bane of sectarianism; it is easier, after all, to fight one’s fellows than it is to battle an entrenched and powerful foe. Yet if the history of the US shows anything, it is that American conservatives cannot afford to become their own worst enemies. In unity lies their only hope."

[Fred Nerks]

Barack Obama of Harvard Law School—and Beyond
November 5, 2008

1 Comment During his student years at Harvard Law School, Barack Obama, J.D. ’91, now president-elect of the United States, also came to the attention of the wider University community.

In 1990, he was elected president of the Harvard Law Review (as reported here from the Harvard Magazine account), the first African American to attain that position in the journal’s then 103-year-old history. The news made national headlines, as the Harvard Crimson reported in a detailed account.

In 1991, Obama agreed to run for the Board of Overseers as one of three petition candidates put forward by the group Harvard-Radcliffe Alumni/ae Against Apartheid, which was seeking to persuade the University to divest its holdings in firms doing business in South Africa. None of the three was elected. (Note the members of the complete slates, including such prominent figures as Steven Ballmer ’77, now CEO of Microsoft.)

Harvard Magazine covered his campaign for U.S. Senate from Illinois in mid 2004, when he ran against another Harvard Law School alumnus.

In more recent campus comments, the November 4 issue of the Crimson reported the Morning Prayers remarks of Loeb University Professor Laurence H. Tribe, a constitutional law scholar, bearing on the qualities of his former student. And one of the panels convened for Harvard Law School’s capital-campaign celebration featured a discussion of potential changes in the Supreme Court’s makeup, and the contentious issues it might face, during an Obama administration. And the law school published this write-up and collection of links concerning its newly famous alumnus.

Finally, with the votes tallied, it’s time to revise the trivia manuals. Speaking at the Law School campaign celebration on October 23, Harvard President Drew Faust offered this bit of historical humor: “[I]t’s quite possible that 12 days from now, Rutherford B. Hayes may no longer be the only right answer to the trivia question, ‘What graduate of Harvard Law School was elected president of the United States?’” Occupying a whole new category of trivia, of course, is Michelle (Robinson) Obama, J.D. ’88.

http://harvardmagazine.com/alumni-in-the-news/barack-obama-of-harvard-law-school