The faculty at the University of St. Thomas law school is among the most politically balanced law faculties in the country, according to a new study from faculty at Harvard and the University of Chicago.
Studies have shown that law school faculties lean strongly to the left side of the political spectrum, with five empirical studies carried out over the past three decades concluding that between 75-86% of American law school professors are politically “liberal.”
The most recent study from Harvard and the University of Chicago places St. Thomas among just six law schools that are nearly perfectly balanced between conservative and liberal faculties. The other schools are Texas Tech University School of Law, Chapman University’s Fowler School of Law, Faulkner University’s Thomas Goode Jones School of Law, Baylor Law School, and Brigham Young University’s J. Reuben Clark Law School. St. Thomas is the only school among these six that also ranks among the top 25 law schools for scholarly impact.
“We often talk about the need to cultivate a diverse and inclusive law school community,” St. Thomas Law Dean Robert Vischer said. “One important component of diversity is ideological. If we aim to engage students meaningfully on the defining issues of the day, does our community include the breadth of perspectives and commitments that will make such engagement authentic and robust?”
The study further shows that fewer than 10 U.S. law schools employ a faculty that is more conservative than the average American. The study uses campaign donation data and a calculated “CFscore” to rank law schools from “liberal” to “conservative.” The study can be viewed online here.
