Can You Spot The Eminent Scholar?
I know I go to a "Top Tier" law school, but it always surprises me when I discover that one of my professors is an "Eminent Scholar" in some area of law. Not because I don't think they're smart, but because professors at Minnesota (for the most part) seem like normal people.1 But every once in awhile, I run across something that makes me realize that these are really top flight "scholars."2 Earlier this week in my Admin. Law class, we were reading United States v. Mead,3 which is, as US Weekly has written "the hottest Administrative Law opinion since Chevron. If you only read one Supreme Court opinion discussing reviewing-court deference to agency interpretations this year, make it Mead."4 Anyway, the opinion cites an article co-written by Prof. Admin. The Supreme Effing Court cited her article!
I know it is weird to go all star struck over this but when I saw the cite, I was like "I know her! I KNOW her!"
So yeah, I'm a nerd. But, Prof. Admin. is still awesome. And now I realizes she's awesome for a reason other than because she is a teacher that can almost make Administrative Law interesting.
1 Case in point, Professor Matheson was more than willing to repeatedly say "Mr. Dumbass" and sing in the musical this year... and he seemed to be having a lot of fun doing it.
2 As much as legal scholarship can truly be called "scholarship." But that's a debate for another day.
3 533 U.S. 218 (2001) (providing the cite because I know y'all want to read it).
4 US WEEKLY 43, Jul. 22, 2001 (seriously, its in US Weekly... read it.)
posted by Unreasonable Man @ 7:27 AM
11 comments
11 Comments:
It's nice that she was cited in an important case, but I don't think third year professors can be called "eminent." Hasn't she only published three articles or so? And why are you not extolling my virtues?
Webster's defines "eminent" as "standing out so as to be readily perceived or noted," or as being "prominent." As she has been "readily perceived" and "noted" by the Supreme Court, which is a fairly prominent place to be recognized, I would say, yes, she can be called "eminent." At the very least, she is one of the more prominent young legal scholars in the field.
And I'm not extolling your virtue, as I'm sure you really are Dean Chen (sarcasm), because I haven't had a class with you. At least not until I take your Statutory Interpretation class next year (that is assuming you are still around... any comment on the rumor that you are leaving Minnesota?)
Why would I leave Minnesota? There are so many fabulous students here for me to marry.
Disclaimer: I really like her, too.
BUT, the article cited was co-authored with Thomas Merrill. He is a GIANT in legal academia, and he is just the kind of person SCOTUS cites. So, while she definitely gets kudos for co-authoring an article of sufficient quality to be noticed by SCOTUS, it is really for riding on Merrill's coattails (i.e., Merrill's name).
I freaked when I saw Prof. Burkhart's law review article quoted over and over again in Modern Real Estate. Granted, it was a MN S.Ct. opinion (I think) - but still very neat.
Then again, I was willing to have her children after property first year. No RAP in there - it doesn't get better than that.
I was hoping for some hot-for-teacher stuff. I must say I'm dis-a-pointed (sic).
Nice e-mail to Fox you put together there Mike... Too bad Dean Keyes hates you. But at least she doesn't think your are an alcoholic, so there's that...
Yeah, I don't know why my e-mail got sent out to the entire student body. Oh well.
Which email was this? I haven't recieved anything from "Douche Bag" in quite some time.
Yes, she's quite fancy, what with her inability to properly pronounce "ascertain" and "capricious."
So only one commentor got the point of this post. The point was it always throws me off a little bit when I see citations to MY professors. It reminds me that they are legal scholars, and many of them experts at something (although probably a very specialized something that comes up very rarely, or not at all).
And Mr. or Ms. Bookstand, if the worst you have to say about Hickman is her pronunciation, than I think you've got a pretty weak argument against her.
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