{"id":154276,"date":"2026-06-10T14:57:28","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T22:57:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/06\/10\/even-if-law-professors-are-self-censoring-lets-not-rush-to-any-conclusions-about-liberal-bias\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T14:57:28","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T22:57:28","slug":"even-if-law-professors-are-self-censoring-lets-not-rush-to-any-conclusions-about-liberal-bias","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/06\/10\/even-if-law-professors-are-self-censoring-lets-not-rush-to-any-conclusions-about-liberal-bias\/","title":{"rendered":"Even If Law Professors Are Self-Censoring, Let\u2019s Not Rush To Any Conclusions About \u2018Liberal Bias\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Even with the Court majority checking box after box on the Project 2025 to-do list, conservatives are interested in maintaining the position that their views are censored or that they are being ostracized just for sharing them. This is a silly position, of course. Actual censorship would look like the government disappearing plaques that recognize the existence of slavery<\/a> or stripping information about Black and female veterans from government websites<\/a>. It would look like the White House having a snitch list for left-leaning media sources<\/a>. Actual ostracizing would look like excluding whatever legacy media refuses to be lapdogs from the White House or, I don\u2019t know, literally bragging about how many people you\u2019re deporting despite some of them having been born here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Conservative oppression, to the degree that it exists, is measured by their feelings. I have no doubt in my mind that Amy Wax feels<\/em> like a free speech warrior for speaking disparagingly about her students and inviting white supremacists to speak in her classroom<\/a>, but the First Amendment isn\u2019t a blank check to foster a hostile learning environment for your students. The things we say and do have social consequences, and it seems that so much \u201cconservative censorship\u201d boils down to \u201cI can\u2019t believe you\u2019d let opinions get in the way of our friendship\u201d when the opinion is \u201cRacially profiling apparent Mexicans is cool and great, actually<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

A recent survey of ~2,000 law professors appears to show that conservative law professors are afraid to speak their minds. Reuters<\/a> has coverage:<\/p>\n

\n

More \u200cthan half of the surveyed faculty members \u2014 56% \u2014 reported at least occasionally feeling unable to express their opinions for fear of how students, colleagues or administrators would \u200breact, according to a report released Tuesday by the Foundation for \u200bIndividual Rights and Expression, a nonprofit free speech advocacy group.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

What follows are some percentages that stuck out to me:<\/p>\n

\n

Conservative faculty members reported the most pressure to \u200bself-censor, at 72%. That compared with 60% among moderates and 50% \u200bamong liberal faculty, reinforcing the common perception that law schools are skewed toward liberal \u200cstudents \u2060and professors\u202681% said a liberal individual would be a positive fit at their law school, while only \u200b44% said a \u200bconservative person would \u2060be a good fit\u2026Conservative \u200blaw \u2060faculty were more than three times as likely as liberal law faculty to report that they at least occasionally hide their political beliefs from other \u2060faculty \u200bin a bid to keep their jobs.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Is it fair to read that the data reinforces the perception that law schools are skewed toward liberals? I think what\u2019s happening is that institutions of learning are skewed toward civility<\/em> and conservative in-group behavior has become aggressively anti-civil since the Trump era<\/a>. Take the 81% of professors believing a liberal would be a positive fit compared to 44% believing a conservative would point. While I don\u2019t know the political leanings of the chompy Biglaw associate<\/a>, I do know that a good chunk of the stories I\u2019ve seen across my tenure at ATL involving students of conservative political leanings don\u2019t paint the best pictures of sociability. Remember the fried chicken trap house FedSoc event a couple years ago at Yale? Conservative students. The White supremacist constitutional law paper <\/a>that said voting rights should be culled and people may have to die to secure the White America the founders intended? Conservative student and judge. I use conservative there broadly \u2014 all sorts of alt-right or outright fascists crowd under the conservative umbrella. \u201cLiberal\u201d students just aren\u2019t doing those sorts of things. You might get an occasional \u201cThe Rule of Law is good\u201d or \u201cJournalists and literal infants should not be routinely shot in the head as a government\u2019s anti-terrorism initiative,\u201d but none of that compares to campus Republican leaders getting caught in racist group chats<\/a>. No shit conservatives might not fit in as well as the average liberal \u2014 one of their calling cards is bragging about how rude they get to be to people. Remember Joe Rogan rejoicing that people can say r*****<\/a> again because Trump was back in office? What would the liberal equivalent even be? Now that Mamdani is mayor, I can openly refer to strangers as neighbor? One of these is obviously more pleasant to be around.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t a free speech thing, campus or otherwise. Conservatives in general aren\u2019t that pleasant to be around for extended periods of time. That\u2019s part of why they\u2019re having such a shitty time on dating apps<\/a> and why they keep complaining that so-and-so won\u2019t have dinner with them for Thanksgiving. The guy who couldn\u2019t care less if the EPA was disbanded and nothing prevented companies from forcing us to drink sludge out of our tap water doesn\u2019t excel at interactions requiring empathy and keeping up common niceties. Surprise, surprise. That doesn\u2019t change if you\u2019re a student or a professor. Liberals, annoying as they may be, are at least socially savvy enough to refer to you as you\u2019d like to be referred to without getting turned into a meme for cursing out Elliot Page<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Unless liberals have a monopoly on civility, the self-censorship data as presented shouldn\u2019t be enough to \u201creinforce\u201d the idea that law schools are skewed against conservatives. Especially when there are things that point to the contrary like law professors<\/a> and deans<\/a> getting punished because they didn\u2019t lick the boot hard enough or deans who may have lost their job because they are openly gay<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Earlier<\/strong>: Amy Wax Plots Racial Discrimination Suit Unless Penn Forgives Her For Denigrating Students, Bringing White Supremacists To Class<\/a><\/p>\n

White Law Student Has Multi-Million Discrimination Suit Against Howard University Thrown Out<\/a><\/p>\n

Tenured Law Professor Allegedly Removed From Class Over Political Comments<\/a><\/p>\n

Fired Arkansas Law Dean Gets Wave Of Support From Law Professors<\/a><\/p>\n

\n
\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord\u2122 in the Facebook group\u00a0Law School Memes for Edgy T14s . \u00a0He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boat builder who is learning to swim and is interested in rhetoric, Spinozists and humor. Getting back in to cycling wouldn\u2019t hurt either. You can reach him by email at christopherrashadwilliams@gmail.com<\/a> and by Tweet\/Bluesky at\u00a0@WritesForRent<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Even If Law Professors Are Self-Censoring, Let\u2019s Not Rush To Any Conclusions About \u2018Liberal Bias\u2019<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Even with the Court majority checking box after box on the Project 2025 to-do list, conservatives are interested in maintaining the position that their views are censored or that they are being ostracized just for sharing them. This is a silly position, of course. Actual censorship would look like the government disappearing plaques that recognize the existence of slavery<\/a> or stripping information about Black and female veterans from government websites<\/a>. It would look like the White House having a snitch list for left-leaning media sources<\/a>. Actual ostracizing would look like excluding whatever legacy media refuses to be lapdogs from the White House or, I don\u2019t know, literally bragging about how many people you\u2019re deporting despite some of them having been born here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Conservative oppression, to the degree that it exists, is measured by their feelings. I have no doubt in my mind that Amy Wax feels<\/em> like a free speech warrior for speaking disparagingly about her students and inviting white supremacists to speak in her classroom<\/a>, but the First Amendment isn\u2019t a blank check to foster a hostile learning environment for your students. The things we say and do have social consequences, and it seems that so much \u201cconservative censorship\u201d boils down to \u201cI can\u2019t believe you\u2019d let opinions get in the way of our friendship\u201d when the opinion is \u201cRacially profiling apparent Mexicans is cool and great, actually<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

A recent survey of ~2,000 law professors appears to show that conservative law professors are afraid to speak their minds. Reuters<\/a> has coverage:<\/p>\n

\n

More \u200cthan half of the surveyed faculty members \u2014 56% \u2014 reported at least occasionally feeling unable to express their opinions for fear of how students, colleagues or administrators would \u200breact, according to a report released Tuesday by the Foundation for \u200bIndividual Rights and Expression, a nonprofit free speech advocacy group.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

What follows are some percentages that stuck out to me:<\/p>\n

\n

Conservative faculty members reported the most pressure to \u200bself-censor, at 72%. That compared with 60% among moderates and 50% \u200bamong liberal faculty, reinforcing the common perception that law schools are skewed toward liberal \u200cstudents \u2060and professors\u202681% said a liberal individual would be a positive fit at their law school, while only \u200b44% said a \u200bconservative person would \u2060be a good fit\u2026Conservative \u200blaw \u2060faculty were more than three times as likely as liberal law faculty to report that they at least occasionally hide their political beliefs from other \u2060faculty \u200bin a bid to keep their jobs.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Is it fair to read that the data reinforces the perception that law schools are skewed toward liberals? I think what\u2019s happening is that institutions of learning are skewed toward civility<\/em> and conservative in-group behavior has become aggressively anti-civil since the Trump era<\/a>. Take the 81% of professors believing a liberal would be a positive fit compared to 44% believing a conservative would point. While I don\u2019t know the political leanings of the chompy Biglaw associate<\/a>, I do know that a good chunk of the stories I\u2019ve seen across my tenure at ATL involving students of conservative political leanings don\u2019t paint the best pictures of sociability. Remember the fried chicken trap house FedSoc event a couple years ago at Yale? Conservative students. The White supremacist constitutional law paper <\/a>that said voting rights should be culled and people may have to die to secure the White America the founders intended? Conservative student and judge. I use conservative there broadly \u2014 all sorts of alt-right or outright fascists crowd under the conservative umbrella. \u201cLiberal\u201d students just aren\u2019t doing those sorts of things. You might get an occasional \u201cThe Rule of Law is good\u201d or \u201cJournalists and literal infants should not be routinely shot in the head as a government\u2019s anti-terrorism initiative,\u201d but none of that compares to campus Republican leaders getting caught in racist group chats<\/a>. No shit conservatives might not fit in as well as the average liberal \u2014 one of their calling cards is bragging about how rude they get to be to people. Remember Joe Rogan rejoicing that people can say r*****<\/a> again because Trump was back in office? What would the liberal equivalent even be? Now that Mamdani is mayor, I can openly refer to strangers as neighbor? One of these is obviously more pleasant to be around.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t a free speech thing, campus or otherwise. Conservatives in general aren\u2019t that pleasant to be around for extended periods of time. That\u2019s part of why they\u2019re having such a shitty time on dating apps<\/a> and why they keep complaining that so-and-so won\u2019t have dinner with them for Thanksgiving. The guy who couldn\u2019t care less if the EPA was disbanded and nothing prevented companies from forcing us to drink sludge out of our tap water doesn\u2019t excel at interactions requiring empathy and keeping up common niceties. Surprise, surprise. That doesn\u2019t change if you\u2019re a student or a professor. Liberals, annoying as they may be, are at least socially savvy enough to refer to you as you\u2019d like to be referred to without getting turned into a meme for cursing out Elliot Page<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Unless liberals have a monopoly on civility, the self-censorship data as presented shouldn\u2019t be enough to \u201creinforce\u201d the idea that law schools are skewed against conservatives. Especially when there are things that point to the contrary like law professors<\/a> and deans<\/a> getting punished because they didn\u2019t lick the boot hard enough or deans who may have lost their job because they are openly gay<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Earlier<\/strong>: Amy Wax Plots Racial Discrimination Suit Unless Penn Forgives Her For Denigrating Students, Bringing White Supremacists To Class<\/a><\/p>\n

White Law Student Has Multi-Million Discrimination Suit Against Howard University Thrown Out<\/a><\/p>\n

Tenured Law Professor Allegedly Removed From Class Over Political Comments<\/a><\/p>\n

Fired Arkansas Law Dean Gets Wave Of Support From Law Professors<\/a><\/p>\n

\n
\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord\u2122 in the Facebook group\u00a0Law School Memes for Edgy T14s . \u00a0He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boat builder who is learning to swim and is interested in rhetoric, Spinozists and humor. Getting back in to cycling wouldn\u2019t hurt either. You can reach him by email at christopherrashadwilliams@gmail.com<\/a> and by Tweet\/Bluesky at\u00a0@WritesForRent<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Even If Law Professors Are Self-Censoring, Let\u2019s Not Rush To Any Conclusions About \u2018Liberal Bias\u2019<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Even with the Court majority checking box after box on the Project 2025 to-do list, conservatives are interested in maintaining the position that their views are censored or that they are being ostracized just for sharing them. This is a silly position, of course. Actual censorship would look like the government disappearing plaques that recognize […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":154277,"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-154276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Chris-Williams-2025-p67aCl.jpg?fit=512%2C288&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154276","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=154276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154276\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}