{"id":122840,"date":"2025-06-12T15:19:39","date_gmt":"2025-06-12T23:19:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/06\/12\/law-school-banned-clinic-from-talking-about-studies-that-made-governor-sad\/"},"modified":"2025-06-12T15:19:39","modified_gmt":"2025-06-12T23:19:39","slug":"law-school-banned-clinic-from-talking-about-studies-that-made-governor-sad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/06\/12\/law-school-banned-clinic-from-talking-about-studies-that-made-governor-sad\/","title":{"rendered":"Law School Banned Clinic From Talking About Studies That Made Governor Sad"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kimberly Terrell resigned from her role as director of community engagement at Tulane\u2019s Environmental Law Clinic after law school administrators slapped a gag order on the clinic doing any \u201cengaging\u201d of the \u201ccommunity\u201d over its work.<\/p>\n

The Environmental Law Clinic represents numerous residents of Louisiana\u2019s \u201cCancer Alley,\u201d a long stretch of riverside communities suffering from industries using the Mississippi River as a toxic dumping ground for decades. The clinic also produces research detailing the impact of the pollution on residents, having found both statistically higher cancer rates and incidence of premature and underweight births. While suffering the brunt of the damage, the Black community in Louisiana also got significantly fewer jobs in the petrochemical industry when controlled for training and education according to the clinic\u2019s studies. All the negatives, few of the positives.<\/p>\n

As one might imagine, the state\u2019s Republican government and big-pocketed bosses don\u2019t appreciate anyone pointing out the damage being done by unchecked industry, but no one expected a private law school to cater to those complaints.<\/p>\n

From the AP<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

Marcilynn Burke, dean of Tulane\u2019s law school, wrote in a May 4 email to clinic staff that Tulane University President Michael Fitts worried the clinic\u2019s work threatened to tank support for the university\u2019s long-sought efforts to redevelop New Orleans\u2019 historic Charity Hospital as part of a downtown expansion.<\/p>\n

\u201cElected officials and major donors have cited the clinic as an impediment to them lending their support to the university generally and this project specifically,\u201d Burke wrote.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

School administrators shouldn\u2019t have to deal with elected officials abusing the public trust to lean on private schools to stifle academic work, but those are the breaks. But holding the line, sticking up for the academic mission, and maybe making a few hardball threats about making a big deal about killing the new home for the public health school just to protect donor egos\u2026 that\u2019s the job. What\u2019s not part of the job is downplaying cancer research because the governor\u2019s office is sad.<\/p>\n

For what it\u2019s worth, the governor\u2019s office said they never threatened to withhold funding, which sounds like the sort of denial an office makes when they\u2019ve very carefully never explicitly<\/em> said a particular set of words.<\/p>\n

\n

In her resignation letter, Terrell wrote that she had been told the governor \u201cthreatened to veto\u201d any state funding for the expansion project unless Tulane\u2019s president \u201cdid something\u201d about the clinic.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The AP report suggests that what the school \u201cdid\u201d about the clinic was impose a gag order on \u201call external communications\u201d from social media posts to interviews without administration approval. The administration then blanket denied all requests.<\/p>\n

In a May 21 audio recording obtained by the AP, Provost Robin Forman said that when Tulane leadership met with elected officials in April, they were pressed as to why \u201c\u2018Tulane has taken a stand on the chemical industry as harming communities\u2019,\u201d and this \u201cleft people feeling embarrassed and uncomfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n

You know what can be embarrassing and uncomfortable? Dying slowly of cancer while state officials cover it up. The AP collected so many smoking guns for this report that they should be immediately shipping them to our allies in Ukraine. They got the dean citing the university president questioning how this research was connected to representing clients\u2026 when the research is cited in the court filings<\/em>! <\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

This AP piece, about Tulane’s admin (university and law school) interfering with public communications about research done by a law school clinic that the governor apparently doesn’t like is \u2026 ominous.Esp since Tulane is a private school.apnews.com\/article\/canc\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2014 John Pfaff (@johnpfaff.bsky.social)<\/a> 2025-06-12T17:36:05.801Z<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

It\u2019s definitely bad that a private school is on marionette strings held by the governor, but at least as a private actor, Tulane is free to make its own bad decisions. The real danger to higher education is when public institutions become propaganda factories for the government, an ever-growing risk as conservatives starve public schools of resources and then come for the foreign student tuition that many use to fill the gap. A more dependent education system coupled with government officials willing to abuse their offices makes a noxious cocktail.<\/p>\n

On par with drinking out of the Mississippi. <\/p>\n

Tulane scientist resigns citing university censorship of pollution and racial disparity research<\/a> [AP]<\/p>\n

\n

\"Headshot\"Joe Patrice<\/a>\u00a0is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. Feel free to\u00a0email<\/a> any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky<\/a> if you\u2019re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Law School Banned Clinic From Talking About Studies That Made Governor Sad<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Kimberly Terrell resigned from her role as director of community engagement at Tulane\u2019s Environmental Law Clinic after law school administrators slapped a gag order on the clinic doing any \u201cengaging\u201d of the \u201ccommunity\u201d over its work.<\/p>\n

The Environmental Law Clinic represents numerous residents of Louisiana\u2019s \u201cCancer Alley,\u201d a long stretch of riverside communities suffering from industries using the Mississippi River as a toxic dumping ground for decades. The clinic also produces research detailing the impact of the pollution on residents, having found both statistically higher cancer rates and incidence of premature and underweight births. While suffering the brunt of the damage, the Black community in Louisiana also got significantly fewer jobs in the petrochemical industry when controlled for training and education according to the clinic\u2019s studies. All the negatives, few of the positives.<\/p>\n

As one might imagine, the state\u2019s Republican government and big-pocketed bosses don\u2019t appreciate anyone pointing out the damage being done by unchecked industry, but no one expected a private law school to cater to those complaints.<\/p>\n

From the AP<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

Marcilynn Burke, dean of Tulane\u2019s law school, wrote in a May 4 email to clinic staff that Tulane University President Michael Fitts worried the clinic\u2019s work threatened to tank support for the university\u2019s long-sought efforts to redevelop New Orleans\u2019 historic Charity Hospital as part of a downtown expansion.<\/p>\n

\u201cElected officials and major donors have cited the clinic as an impediment to them lending their support to the university generally and this project specifically,\u201d Burke wrote.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

School administrators shouldn\u2019t have to deal with elected officials abusing the public trust to lean on private schools to stifle academic work, but those are the breaks. But holding the line, sticking up for the academic mission, and maybe making a few hardball threats about making a big deal about killing the new home for the public health school just to protect donor egos\u2026 that\u2019s the job. What\u2019s not part of the job is downplaying cancer research because the governor\u2019s office is sad.<\/p>\n

For what it\u2019s worth, the governor\u2019s office said they never threatened to withhold funding, which sounds like the sort of denial an office makes when they\u2019ve very carefully never explicitly<\/em> said a particular set of words.<\/p>\n

\n

In her resignation letter, Terrell wrote that she had been told the governor \u201cthreatened to veto\u201d any state funding for the expansion project unless Tulane\u2019s president \u201cdid something\u201d about the clinic.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The AP report suggests that what the school \u201cdid\u201d about the clinic was impose a gag order on \u201call external communications\u201d from social media posts to interviews without administration approval. The administration then blanket denied all requests.<\/p>\n

In a May 21 audio recording obtained by the AP, Provost Robin Forman said that when Tulane leadership met with elected officials in April, they were pressed as to why \u201c\u2018Tulane has taken a stand on the chemical industry as harming communities\u2019,\u201d and this \u201cleft people feeling embarrassed and uncomfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n

You know what can be embarrassing and uncomfortable? Dying slowly of cancer while state officials cover it up. The AP collected so many smoking guns for this report that they should be immediately shipping them to our allies in Ukraine. They got the dean citing the university president questioning how this research was connected to representing clients\u2026 when the research is cited in the court filings<\/em>! <\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

This AP piece, about Tulane’s admin (university and law school) interfering with public communications about research done by a law school clinic that the governor apparently doesn’t like is \u2026 ominous.Esp since Tulane is a private school.apnews.com\/article\/canc\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2014 John Pfaff (@johnpfaff.bsky.social)<\/a> 2025-06-12T17:36:05.801Z<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

It\u2019s definitely bad that a private school is on marionette strings held by the governor, but at least as a private actor, Tulane is free to make its own bad decisions. The real danger to higher education is when public institutions become propaganda factories for the government, an ever-growing risk as conservatives starve public schools of resources and then come for the foreign student tuition that many use to fill the gap. A more dependent education system coupled with government officials willing to abuse their offices makes a noxious cocktail.<\/p>\n

On par with drinking out of the Mississippi. <\/p>\n

Tulane scientist resigns citing university censorship of pollution and racial disparity research<\/a> [AP]<\/p>\n

\n

\"Headshot\"Joe Patrice<\/a>\u00a0is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. Feel free to\u00a0email<\/a> any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky<\/a> if you\u2019re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Law School Banned Clinic From Talking About Studies That Made Governor Sad<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kimberly Terrell resigned from her role as director of community engagement at Tulane\u2019s Environmental Law Clinic after law school administrators slapped a gag order on the clinic doing any \u201cengaging\u201d of the \u201ccommunity\u201d over its work. The Environmental Law Clinic represents numerous residents of Louisiana\u2019s \u201cCancer Alley,\u201d a long stretch of riverside communities suffering from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-122840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122840\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}