Penn Law banned Professor Amy Wax from teaching to first-year law school students after she made statements about affirmative action and the importance of culturally encouraging marriage, hard work, and education.
Dean Ted Ruger announced the decision in an email to the Penn community, accusing Wax of “conscious indifference” to truth and stating that Wax spoke “disparagingly and inaccurately” about black students’ performance at Penn Law.
In a September 2017 interview with Brown Economics Professor Glenn Loury on the “downside of affirmative action,” Wax discussed Penn Law Review’s “closely guarded secret” of a racial diversity mandate and the “inconvenient fact” that she could think of “only one or two [black] students who’ve scored in the top half of my required first year course.”
Her statements touch on the idea of “mismatch theory” – the concept that affirmative action may not benefit those it is intended to help due to a potentially poor institutional fit – according to her colleague Jonathan Zimmerman who previously defended Wax. Zimmerman believes law schools should actually study the potential presence of this mismatch effect, rather than silence those who point out its potential presence.
Yet, the saga between Wax and Penn’s administration began much earlier. Ruger initially requested in December that Wax take a leave of absence until the controversy surrounding an op-ed she wrote died down. In the op-ed, Wax claimed “all cultures are not equal…in preparing people to be productive in an advanced economy.”
In the op-ed, Wax defended the 1950s-era values of hard work, marriage, and education that have begun deteriorating in modern society. Though she acknowledges there were major issues during that time, such as widespread racism and fewer opportunities for women, Wax posits that the re-embrace of traditional values and simple rules of strong families, hard work, and education would do much to benefit modern society.
Wax chronicled the reactions of her colleagues in a Wall Street Journal op-ed, noting that an open letter signed by 33 Penn Law professors condemned all of her views without rebutting them or providing counter-evidence.
Though there is no evidence Wax made the comments about affirmative action or 1950s values maliciously or in an unsubstantiated way, the administration believes it renders her unfit to teach mandatory 1L courses.
Ruger wrote in his letter that black students assigned to her class during their 1L year “may reasonably wonder whether their professor has already come to a conclusion about their presence, performance, and potential for success in law school and thereafter.”
