![handle is hein.journals/hlrec108 and id is 1 raw text is: SHarvard Law RECORD
America's First
Law School
Newspaper
35 CENTS
Volume 108, No. 1 Cambridge 02138 Friday, January 15, 1999
Clark Names Prof. Wilkins '80
to Admissions Committee
By Ben Lehrer
Dean Clark '72 appointed Prof.
David Wilkins '80 to serve on the
Admissions Committee in Decem-
ber just before the holiday break.
The appointment responded to
student demands that a person
of color be placed on the commit-
tee in order that it reflect the di-
RECORD photo/Ben Lehrer versity of the faculty.
Students call for the appointment of a person of color to the We are ecstatic about the ap-
Admissions Committee, a call that would soon be answered. pointment of Prof. Wilkins to the
Harvard Community Mourns Loss
of A. Leon Higginbotham Jr.
Judge, Professor, Activist Succumbs to Stroke
By Elizabeth Read
A. Leon Higginbotham, chief
judge emeritus of the U.S. Third
Circuit Court of Appeals and Pub-
lic Service Professor of Jurispru-
dence at the Kennedy School of
Government, passed away in the
evening of Dec. 14, at Massachu-
setts General Hospital in Boston
Judge Higginbotham accepted
his position at the Kennedy
School upon retiring from the
bench in 1993 after 29 years as
a federal judge. In the Law
School Curriculum, he taught a
Seminar on Race, Values and the
American Legal Process.
Higginbotham leaves behind a
considerable legacy of civil rights
activism and influence. As ajurist,
educator and scholar,
Higginbotham repeatedly urged
the nation to confront
the racial violence
and injustice of its his-
tory, finding a trail of
oppre-1ion in out-
wardly ordinary his-
torical documents.
At the funeral ser-
vice on Dec. 21, Prof.
Charles Ogletree '78
said Judge
Higginbotham was
not only a mentor Judge Hi&
but a father figure
for me and for a generation of
young law professors and law-
yers. He was the epitome of the
people's lawyer. Despite his in-
ggil
dividual merits and accomplish-
ments, he never hesitated to lend
a hand to the poor, the voiceless,
the powerless and
the downtrodden.
Higginbotham
himself was born
into a working-class
family in Trenton,
New Jersey on Feb.
25, 1928. Beginning
his higher educa-
tion as an engineer-
ing student at
Purdue University,
nbotham he eventually
earned his
bachelor's degree in liberal arts
at Antioch College in 1949. He
Pleas.? see JUDGE, p. 3
HLS Profs Perform
in Ongoing Clinton Drama
By Ben Lehrer
The road to impeachmen
paved with Harvard Law p
fessors.
From the early days
President Clinton's impea
ment saga, HLS profess(
have remained close to t
spotlight.
Prof. Charles Ogletree
has played the role of aw
cate, representing Fran
Carter, Monica Lewinsk
first lawyer, as well as
former Agriculture Sec-
retary Mike Espy. Espy
had his own indepen-
dent counsel investiga-
tion concerning charges tI
he accepted illegal corpor
gifts. Espy was acquitted of
wrongdoing last year.
Profs. Richard Parker
and Laurence Tribe '66 c
tributed to amicus briefs fi
in the Paula Jones lawsuit
Jones and Clinton, resp
tively. Both professors, ale
with Alan Dershowitz and v
iting professor Judge A. Lc
Higginbotham, who pass
away on Dec. 14, testified in front In add
of the House Judiciary Commit- he is in%
tee in hearings held last Novem- ordeal
t is ber and December. spondin
)ro- Parker testified for the Repub- writing
lican majority, while the other calls fr,
of three testified for the Democrats. posed to
ch- Parker, a Democrat, specu- Sexu
ors lates that the Republicans in- Dershov
the vited him because of his work in ofinforn
support of the proposed amend- sexual
'78 ment to proscribe flag burning, person's
vo- Dershowitz, Higginbotham The
cis and Tribe testified that impeach- the moE
y's ment was not warranted in this ments i
RECORD Feature
hat case, while Parker testified that inclusior
ate perjury is an impeachable of- by Lewir
ail fense, although this did not ing that
mean that Congress was re- in three
'70 quired to vote to impeach. married
on- This
led Dersh Quick to the Pen sexual
for Hot on the heels of The Starr Dershov
)ec- Report, Dershowitz produced a J. Edgar
ong book entitled Sexual Martin
vis- McCarthyism about the Clinton gaged ir
con scandal and the Irdependent
sed Counsel Law. P
lition, Dershowitz says
volved in the ongoing
'on a daily basis, re-
g to press inquiries,
columns, and taking
om congressmen op-
impeachment.
al McCarthyism is
vitz's term for the use
nation about a person's
life to tarnish that
public image.
Starr Report is one of
st disgraceful docu-
n American history,
said Dershowitz. It
was designed to dis-
grace the president
into retiring.
He pointed to the
n of a statement made
nsky to a friend recall-
t Clinton told her that
years he might not be
to his wife any more.
is the paradigm of
McCarthyism, said
witz. This was akin to
r Hoover having taped
Luther King Jr. en-
n a sexual activity and
Pleasesee. Profs, p. 6.
Committee, said BLSA presi-
dent T.J. Stevenson '00. Clark
and [Dean of Admissions Joyce]
Curli did what needed to be done
and did it quickly.
Wilkins, who was
on sabbatical last se-
mester, acknowledged
that serving on the
Committee would be
a tremendous amount
of work and responsi-
bility, but felt it was
important enough for
him to accept Clark's Prof
appointment. Wilk
The issue of declin-
ing minority enrollment is very
important and something I care
very much about, he said. I
don't know what the reasons are
for the decline, but I am looking
forward to working with my col-
leagues on the committee and
admittingthe best class we can
for Harvard Law School.
Both Clark and Curll empha-
sized that the main focus of their
By Janie Kim
A security guard's attempt to
remove Raphael Abiem LL.M.
'99 from the Au
Ban Pain coffee
shop at 1100
Mass. Ave. was
at least partly
motivated by
racial stereo-
typing, said
Abiem.
Abiem, who
is originally
from Sudan, ac-
cuses Au Bon RE
Pain of offering Raphael Ab,
a contrived premise for its at-
tempted eviction of him. He
says that the only obvious fac-
tor that distinguished him
from the store's other custom-
ers was his race.
Still, the cafeteria-style eatery
remains Abiem's favorite
Harvard Square hangout.
Citing the pragmatism neces-
sary to navigate a society where
racially-tinged stressors seem
almost unavoidable, Abiem said,
I suppose I could stop spending
my dollar or two there. But it
would be of little consequence to
Au Bon Pain. On the other hand,
the benefit'I gain from the social
element there...from meeting my
friends far outweighs any draw-
backs.
For me to be discouraged by
the bigotry of a few would be ri-
diculous, said Abiem.
Fighting Back With
Psychology
On Dec. 23, at around 8:30
a.m., Abiem said he was sitting
in the interior dining area ofAu
Bon Pain when a security guard,
contracted from Pinkerton Secu-
.n
Ain'.
efforts to reverse the downward
trend in minority enrollment would
be in increasing the number of ap-
plicants and the number of admit-
ted applicants who de-
cide to attend.
I think that the
problem is probably
going to be most ef-
fectively solved by
putting a lot of effort
and skill into im-
proved marketing to
increase the appli-
David cant volume from mi-
S '80 norities, and into re-
cruitment after those
people arc admitted, Clark said.
But I also realize that there is
a perception issue about whether
the committee is doing its best,
he added. I wanted to address
this perception issue.
I It will also be very useful to
add a different perspective to the
committee, especially someone
Please see WILKINS, p. 3
rity, began to hover around
him.
All of a sudden he told me,
'Leave,' said Abiem.
According to Abiem, when he
asked the secu-
rity guard why
he should leave,
the guard in-
formed him
that there was
a 30-minute
limit on the
time customers
could sit in Au
Bon Pain.
Abiem pro-
ORD photo/Janie Krn tested, how-
Ti LL.M. '99 ever, that he'd
been sitting at the table for only
seven to eight minutes at the
most. Abiem remembers sev-
eral of the tables inside Au Bon
Please see LL.M., p. 2
INSIDE
THIS ISSUE
BSA Gets Excited ...... 3
A Civil Action
Reviewed ...............10
Year in Music
Revisifed .............11
Also:
Boldiar, The Buzz, and
the perennially derisive
Fenno.
LL.M. Accuses Au Bon
Pain of Racist Security
)ien](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/hlrec108&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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