Personally I see little room for Duke’s officers to stand on.
Their intent is obvious and their actions speak for themselves. I only see their dragging this case out as doing more harm than good to the university.
When you're dealing with the 'intentions' of people, you have to cover every base because they will try to explain bad motivations away with some excuse.
I agree with you that the longer this drags on, the worse it looks for Duke. Of course, the initial scandal was bad enough - this just keeps it in the news.
My daughter was applying to colleges about the time this all broke, and we crossed Duke off the list. Even though my mom was Duke '48.
Though I never defended a high-profile case like this, I would think that somebody should have contemplated settlement very, very seriously rather than let things drag on this long. But the same pride and liberal delusions, plus blind belief in their own perfection, led to the scandal in the first place and will probably lead them to go to trial. They might get lucky, but they may have a hard fall.
An interesting thing about trying this in federal court is that Duke will not get a Durham jury. The panel will be drawn from all over the division (five counties), and I don't think Duke will get much sympathy outside its immediate orbit.