Legal Commentary

Here's a curious little interview with Yale Law School's Associate Dean of Admissions, Asha Rangappa, about what the admissions office just can't abide: "a person who really loves THE LAW," and is unwise enough to say so in a personal statement.  This "law zombie" is forecasted to be prone to "muttering Supreme Court holdings under his breath" and "randomly shouting 'SCALIA!' very loudly" to unsuspecting decent folk.

I wonder what could possibly be objectionable, in an aspiring lawyer, about stating a love for the law.  And it does happen, from time to time, that Justice Scalia takes a hand in the law.  Is the trouble that we want college kids to come in skeptics from the get-go?  I thought it was law schools' job to convert believers into cynics; if they come in already nicely jaded, what will there be left for us to do?  Or perhaps the difficulty is the preposterous idea that someone could believe in "the law" at all -- what could be more mindless, more evocative of a wraith-like soul dead to the real world?  If so, I suppose it's a metaphysical predilection, a visceral dislike for brooding omnipresence types.  Let them read Holmes!  Interesting to see the ordinary religion of the law school classroom gaining fresh converts in the admissions office.