On Thursday, 18 of the university’s tenured and tenure track law professors passed a unanimous resolution in favour of renaming their school the Antonin Scalia Law School, pushing back against an April faculty senate resolution signed by 140 George Mason faculty members which criticised the name change. Additionally, the law faculty have hit back at the George Mason community for publicly opposing the move, arguing that the opposition movement reflects ‘ideological bias’.

Heavy opposition

The decision to rename George Mason’s law school came in March as a key condition to a $30 million donation to the university, the largest in its history. While $10 million of that amount was gifted by billionaire conservative activist Charles Koch, a further $20 million came from an anonymous donor. Opponents of the ‘Scalia Law School’ plan have criticised the lack of transparency around the donation behind the name change, the influence of the donors over the law school’s mission going forward, and the ethics of naming a public university law school after one of the most divisive and staunchly conservative judges in the Supreme Court’s recent history.

Law professors push back

However, the law faculty resolution has pushed back against other faculty members, accusing opponents of ideological bias against Scalia and his legacy. ‘The Faculty Senate’s insistence that major gifts be accepted only following some kind of a public deliberative process is not a demand that has ever been made before, or since, the Scalia naming gifts were announced,’ reads the resolution.

Sources: Wall Street Journal; Big Law Business