The Daily Signal - Harvard’s Decade-Long Radicalization: Lower Standards, Middle Eastern Cash, Politicization | Victor Davis Hanson

Episode Date: April 15, 2025

Early this month, Harvard Law School students participated in a “Wikipedia Edit-A-Thon” workshop. Students were asked to "gather data to edit the Wikipedia pages of Big Law firms to reflect cases they have recently argued," according to The Washington Free Beacon. What actually happened? Several students singled out and warped the Wikipedia pages of big law firms who previously that they would cut back recruitment from universities that did not curb the spread of anti-Semitism on-campus following the Oct. 7 Hama terror attacks. What are we getting at? For decades, America’s elite law schools have degraded their standards in the pursuit of social justice and have become wholly dependent on foreign money. Now, it’s finally catching up to them, argues Victor Davis Hanson on today’s edition of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words.” 👉Don’t miss out on Victor’s latest videos by subscribing to The Daily Signal today. You’ll be notified every time a new piece of content drops: https://youtube.com/dailysignal?sub_confirmation=1 👉If you can’t get enough of Victor Davis Hanson from The Daily Signal, subscribe to his official YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/victordavishanson7273  👉He’s also the host of “The Victor Davis Hanson Show,” available wherever you prefer to watch or listen. Links to the show and exclusive content are available on his website: https://victorhanson.com The Daily Signal cannot continue to tell stories, like this one, without the support of our viewers: https://secured.dailysignal.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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We'd love to talk, business. I want to talk about a little esoteric topic very quickly. Law schools, specifically our so-called elite law school, Harvard Law School, Yale Law School, Stanford Law School, UC Berkeley. I know you think, well, who cares? Well, we should care. If we look at all of these district judges that are issuing injunctions against Trump, or we look at many of the most powerful people in the Obama or Biden DOJ,

we find these law schools mentioned all the time. And the problem with them is that they're no longer imperialized. about 95% of their faculties are Democratic, our left wing. And more importantly, they have started to do things they didn't do in the past. Hello, this is Victor Davis-Hanssen for the Daily Signal. I want to talk about a little esoteric topic very quickly. Law schools, specifically our so-called elite law schools, Harvard Law School, Yale Law School, Stanford Law School, UC Berkeley's Law School.

I know you think, well, who cares? Well, we should care. If we look at all of these district judges that are issuing injunctions against Trump, or we look at many of the most powerful people in the Obama or Biden DOJ or even anybody's DOJ, or if we look at these PACs and political organizations that are trying to influence public opinion and look at the lawyers, we find these law schools, Yale, Harvard, Stanford. Duke mentioned all the time. And the problem with them is that they're no longer empirical. About 95% of their faculties are Democratic, are left-wing. And more importantly, they have started to do things they didn't do in the past. They've lowered their admission standards, and they have become politicized, and they've been recipients of large amounts of foreign cash. Let me give you a few examples.

As we speak right now, Harvard University got together a group of its radical law students for a complete week and long session. You know what they were doing? They were trying to collectively go into Wikipedia and warp the descriptions of major law firms that had said to Harvard, if you continue the anti-Semitism that is endemic on campus in general, and at the law school in particular, we may not want to hire you. So they were retaliatory, and they were going through their entire caseload to try to damage them in the public eye on Wikipedia. At the same time this was happening, though, Harvard was always traditionally ranked along with Yale or Stanford number one, number two. It dropped out of the top five.

It dropped out of the top five. by the US News and World Report rankings, which kind of polls admissions officers and tries to get the general opinion of the relative merit of each of these law schools. And it reflects something else that was going on to Harvard. Harvard has a traditional math class. It's very difficult that most undergraduates

are supposed to take. But they couldn't pass it. So now, Harvard, because they have changed their admissions, and remember for three or four years, like other campuses, they didn't rate comparative GPAs or really require the SAT. They have to have remedial math at Harvard. And what am I getting at?

These law schools then, by changing their curricula to DEI and to changing their admissions policy where they were not looking at the LSAT or grade point averages and the way they used to say was important. And more importantly, in garnering huge amounts of money from the Middle East, Gutter in particular. If you go back to any news account from 2010 to 2020, it's all about gutter and Middle East money pouring into places like Harvard Law School.

So what am I getting that? They created people who under their own people, students, under their own requirements a decade or two earlier, wouldn't have qualified. They changed their curriculum, and they became politicized. And especially they reflected the interest of radical groups in the Middle East. And the result is law firms, when they see the recent graduates, they get disappointed. I want to just end with Stanford Law School.

They follow that same trajectory. And in 2022, only about 84% passed the bar on the first try. Five other law schools. This was when Stanford was rated two in the country. USC had a much higher rate. Stanford went into full panic. They said, oh, my gosh, the post-George Floyd admissions, the change in the curriculum, our students are not passing.

We've got a more 15% flunked the bar from Stanford. And by the way, the California bar had lowered its standards, and it had itself become woke. So what did Stanford do? Well, very quietly, they began to readjust their admissions policy. they began to get more, not a lot, but two, three, four conservative, or at least middle of the road law professors, and they began to crack down on radical student activism. This year, 95% passed just two and a half years later, 2004. So what am I getting at?

The law schools are very important. They're very politicized. And they went in a politicized ideological direction rather than empiricism and traditional law curriculum. And the result is that law firms and agencies look at these law graduates and they're not impressed. And that's why, for example, Vanderbilt is starting to surge up to 14. Cornell is going down to 18. And we're watching a very interesting transformation. Wouldn't it be good that we just hire people not on their blue?

blue chip brand, Harvard, Stanford, Yale, but actual quality of their graduates. To the degree they pass bars on the first try, they are impressive in interviews. And in that K, if we were to do that, I think these Ivy League and prestigious schools would have to adjust very, very quickly and stop the politicalization, the foreign money coming in, and especially the anti-Semitism. Thank you very much. This is Victor Davis-Hansson for the Daily Signal. Thank you for tuning in to the Daily Signal. Please like, share, and subscribe to be notified for more content like this. You can also check out my own website at victorhansen.com

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