Laying Down the Law

We had a President, a lawyer, who once said that an answer to a question depends what the meaning of the word "is" is.  

We had a would-be-President, also a lawyer, who became a non-President by admitting to "putting myself in circumstances that could be misconstrued" when caught with a woman not his wife while insisting he "absolutely did not" do anything immoral.

And now we have a college president - Liz Magill, a law professor and the future former president of the University of Pennsylvania - who when asked by New York congresswoman Elise Stefanik, if  calling for the genocide of Jews on campus was a violation of Penn's code of conduct, Magill said that "if the speech turns into conduct, it can be harassment."

Stefanik followed up by saying, "I am asking, specifically, calling for the genocide of Jews, does that constitute bullying or harassment? 

Magill replied by saying that it was a "context-dependent decision."

Now that Magill is quitting her job as university president, I think the lesson here is obvious.

If you want a professor to lead your university, don't get a law professor.  Get an anthropology professor or a history professor or someone like that.

"If the speech turns into conduct, it can be harassment?"  I guess it's a matter of what the definition of "it" is.

Magill did the impossible.  She has me feeling sympathy for Elise Stefanik.