The National Law Journal has an article today on the fight in Minnesota over mandtory anti-bias CLE courses, which we’ve been discussing. (NLJ, “A battle over anti-bias CLE courses,” 01-12-04, subscription required) Opponent Scott Johnson at Powerline, a/k/a The Big Trunk, has posted the article on his weblog, here. It’s worth a look. Big Trunk says:
“The story is not illuminating, but it is probably useful to have the national press put a spotlight on the case, and I believe there will be additional attention focused on the story in the next week or two when Fox News broadcasts a segment on it.”
In reading the article, I was struck by one strange argument presented by Peter Swanson, corporate counsel at TCF National Bank in Minneapolis, who submitted an amicus brief in support of Elliot Rothenberg’s petition against the Rule. Swanson points out that, unlike Minnesota, California allows self-study to fulfill its anti-bias requirement and therefore ”does not compel attorneys to reveal their ideology by choosing a particular course.” (emphasis added) What a weird, unfortunate notion: it assumes that an attorney would only choose a course whose title/syllabus coincided with his or her existing beliefs on the issue of bias. It also assumes that we each have an “ideology” about bias (or anti-bias).
What ideology would I be revealing if I signed up for “Understanding Islam”? If I went to “Bias, What Bias?”, is there a presumption (rebuttable?) that I believe there is no bias? Just who is doing the presuming and taking notice and why the heck would I care?
Whatever happened to intellectual or social curiosity? To having the courage of your own convictions or being open to the ideas or experiences of others? To taking a devil’s advocate posture, eager to ask the presenters tough questions? I mean, they are lawyers and adults, right? Yet, they’re worried about being “indoctrinated” and “revealing their ideology”. As I might have said in my rebel days: Reveal This! Tonight, my main reaction is: Kids, Stop Whining!
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